Just when you thought the craft beer life would calm down, in just a blink of an eye, Oregon Craft Beer Month has slipped into harvest season. With less than a month left of summer, 2010 has been a mildly comfortable season for most folks in the Willamette Valley, the nation’s second largest hop growing area specific to the greater Cascadian region where approximately 30% of the world’s hop supply comes from. Washington State’s Yakima Valley to the north accounts for around 75% of the nation’s hop rations. The Willamette Valley boasts 15%. Before the turn of the 20th Century, the Willamette held a stronghold on hop production, but modern agricultural practices, especially irrigation techniques have aided in Yakima’s rise.

Still, there is no where like Portland, Oregon, which is unique in its close proximity to bountiful hopyards. Where Seattlites find themselves more than two hours from the vast humulus lupulus orchards of Yakima Valley, Portland aka Beervana rests less than an hour from places like Mt. Angel, Woodburn, and Hopmere. The latter destination is the home of Sodbuster Farms, run by Doug Weathers and his skilled crew. Full Sail Brewing generously organized a tour of the farm for roughly forty lucky people from the craft beer industry including many pub owners, bartenders, and media. The trip was replete with provisions of Full Sail’s Session, Black Session, IPA, and Pale Ale.

The tour started in the hopyard where we were able to witness firsthand the felling of the mighty hop bines that grew up substrates almost twenty feet to the summer sunshine. Weathers reported that 2010′s harvest was  not on par with last year’s bountiful yield due to a late start to summer and cooler weather. Still, the dank fields of Magnum hops we watched being harvested were plump and resinous. According to Weathers, these cones possessed about 18% alpha acidity, which is on the high end for most hops.

After spending about an hour frolicking like bemused children through the enchanted columns of seemingly infinite hops (according to Weathers the farm grows on about 500 acres of land) while truck after truck zipped away with loads of sticky green, our group headed up the road to the processing plant. Here the individual clumped bines were attached to a conveyor and suspended from the ceiling above, then shucked of their fruits before multiple custom-made belt, ramp, and screen filterings honed the lush cones down to their desired form. After this, the cones where brought to a heated kilning loft above the farm to dry and eliminate risk of mildew and other undesirables. The scent in this warm loft was pure heaven for those who enjoy the olfactory of ripe resinous hops. The same could be said of the vast refrigeration unit that housed the kilned hops bailed into 200 pound quantities. From about ten feet to the massive cooler door, the whiff of air was unfathomably luring.

Concluding the detailed tour by Mr. Weathers, our crew was treated to a barbecue under two large outdoor tents in front of Sodbuster Farms. As a special treat, our group was presented with to two quarter barrels of hoppy Full Sail beers including the Brewers Reserve Spotless IPA, and the champion of the day, Read More…

Posted under Oregon beer, beer news, brewpubs, places to drink beer

Tonight we were able to get our palates around a flavorsome new maltilicious Full Sail fresh hop beer. Despite the hoparazzi not having many cameras handy, we can confirm that Oregon Guildmeister Brian Butenschoen was on hand to quaff the birra delicioso. Here’s an incriminating cell phone photo taken by Brewpublic’s own Margaret Lut.

Gearing up for our Brewpublic Anniversary event at Saraveza on October 9th and our KillerBeerFest at Bailey’s on October 10th, we couldn’t help but feel the vibe of the harvest season. Though we didn’t anticipate the event to be much of a fresh hop event since the Portland fresh hop festivities will be in full effect the same day at Oaks Park, we were happy to recently discover our event will feature some fantabulous wet hop brews exclusive to the weekend. For example, our friends from Barley Browns, owner Tyler Brown and head brewer Shawn Kelso of Baker City were kind enough to share a gem of a beer from their four-barrel brewery’s library. Making the five hour trek from their Eastern Oregon hotspot, these guys brought us a one-of-a-kind Wild Fresh Hopped American Strong Ale. They will also feature some of these unique highly sought after brews at Belmont Station in the near future. During their brief stay in Portland Brown and Kelso also dropped off eight beers to MacTarnahan’s/Pyramid to submit them in this year’s GABF. Expect some medals from these chaps.

After meeting with the Baker City crew, I headed out to Hillsdale to gratefully partake in a blending and taste panel at Cascade Brewing where brewmaster Ron Gansberg and Curtis Bain pained palates over a series of test blends to come together for a never to be tasted again concoction. This year’s KillerBeerFest will not only feature a divine puckering pour from now defunct BJ’s of PDX, but also this to die for fruity and complex Raccoon Lodge lush lactic.

Plenty more great beers to be announced as the October dates approach. We are enormously stoked!

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Here’s some videos of the hop harvest from Annen Bro. hop farm in Mt Angel, Oregon:

Hops vines straight from the fields being set for processing

Here’s another angle showing the hop vines going up the lift so the flowers can be separated

Many of the hops are separated from the vine and dropped onto a conveyor belt for further processing.

Jeff DeSantis shows the first of six green cleaners that use air to further separate the flowers from the leaves and vines.

Jeff shows us the whole cone wet hops coming off the conveyor before drying and bailing takes place

Upstairs in the hop barn, these hops are leveled from a conveyor and dried for later use.

In a nutshell, that is how the hops go from this...

...to this!

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Fresh hops ripe for the picking

One Hop Festival (Hood River Hop Fest) down, and two to go. October 18 at Hopworks, 2944 SE Powell Blvd., and October 25 at Ninkasi, 272 Van Buren St. in Eugene.   Admission to the events is free; glasses/mugs cost $5, and are required for tasting beer.  Tastes of the individual beers are $1 each.  Hours are Noon to 9 p.m.

Thanks to Chris Crabb, here is the lineup of the freshest beers on tap that will be available at both events.  These two festivals will be the only place where hopheads can find all these beers in one location!

Astoria Brewing Co., Hoptimus Prime, Fresh Hop Ale
BridgePort Brewing Co., Hop Harvest, Imperial Pale Ale
Cascade Lakes Brewing Co., Warrior Fresh Hop Ale, Fresh Hop Pale
Deschutes Brewery, Sodbuster, Golden Ale
Deschutes Brewery, Mirror Pond made with Fresh Hops, Pale Ale
Deschutes Brewery, Hop Trip, Pale Ale
Double Mountain Brewery, Killer Green, IPA
Eugene City Brewery, Fresh Hop Pale, Pale Ale
Fort George Brewery, Ft. George Cohoperative, Pale Ale
Full Sail @ Riverplace, Lupulin, Fresh Hop Ale
Golden Valley Brewery, Tour De Willamette, Pale Ale
Hopworks Urban Brewery, Fest of Fury, Organic Oktoberfest
Hopworks Urban Brewery, Parsec Pale, Strong Pale
Laurelwood Brewing Co., Hop Bale Pale, Pale Ale
Laurelwood Brewing Co., Fresh Nugs, Pale Ale
Lompoc Brewing, Proletariat Red, Organic Red
Lompoc Brewing, Octobock, Bock
Lompoc Brewing, Hop Press, Organic Pale
Lucky Labrador Brewing, the Mutt, Fresh Hop Ale
Ninkasi Brewing Co., Mt Hops, Pale Ale
Pelican Pub & Brewery, Elemental Ale, IPA
Rock Bottom Brewery, Hop Harvest, Fresh Hop Ale
Rogue Ales, Independence Ale, Pale Ale
Roots Organic Brewing Co., Hoppapotamus, ESB
Widmer Brothers Brewing Co., Teaser, Xtra Pale Ale

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Brewer Ben Flerchinger gets hoppy at the Lucky Lab Mutt Hop picking.

The Lucky Labrador is the kind of place where beer lovers and friends alike congregate in a true public house atmosphere.  Boldly hoppy beers adorn the vast selection.  With three locations each with unique wide-open gathering halls, the Lab is perhaps the of friendliest down home pubs in Portland.  On September 17, 2008, a group of Lab Lovers along with staff joined in an annual ritual of picking hops for the autumn Mutt Hop Brew.  I showed up at the Hawthorne location about 1:45PM to find brewer Ben Flerchinger and about ten others picking away.  They had been picking several varietals of vine ripened hops since noon in the back beer garden.  With warm and muggy air, the crop was at its peek.   Hops growing out back of the Lab and from the NW Quimby location were being harvested right before my eyes.  The smell was wonderful, and the mood was that of community and friendship.  Not only were the hops from the Lucky Lab being used, but Lab Lovers were bringing in their own supplies in attempts to make 2008′s harvest the biggest yet. According to Flerchinger, 2007′s Mutt Hop event yielded 73 pounds of sticky lupulin-laden fruit.

By 3:45PM, a new record was in place.  By this time about 15 folks were picking away.  Despite itchy arms (from little humulus lupulus prickers on the vine) for those who didn’t come equipped with long sleeve shirts, the mood was festive, and the duty at hand appeared to be a backdrop to the conversation.  The BBQ was fired up and several delicious Lucky Lab brews were offered to the pickers.  By 5:45PM over 125 pounds of hops were harvested, nearly doubling the previous record.  According to Flerchinger “(The community picking) became an event with people coming six years ago or so.”  Once again, beer has done its job in bringing people together.  Keep an eye out for the Mutt Hop beer, being brewed as I type this.  According to the brewers at the Lab, the base beer for it will be either a pale ale or a bitter.  I can’t wait!

Bag of fresh hops @ Lucky Lab

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