Ahh, October, the month when everyone seems to go a little pumpkin crazy. Well, you can forget pumpkin ale – for beer lovers in the Pacific Northwest, fall is a time for the much more complex, nuanced flavor of fresh hop beer. The Vancouver Brewfest – Fresh Hop Edition will feature fresh hop varieties from more than 30 Southwest Washington breweries. The festival will be held Friday and Saturday, October 7 and 8, 2016 at Vancouver Landing on the Columbia River.
“This is a super-cool time of year if you like hop flavors,” said Cody Gray, the event organizer and founder. “You can only make fresh hop beers when you add fresh picked hops to the last five to 10 minutes of the boiling process during brewing. Those are hops that have been harvested within a day or two at most – and they add a whole new level of complexity and flavor.”
Fresh hop varieties, made with locally-grown, fresh picked hops, are less bitter and more floral, with an array of subtle tones and tastes that are only available at harvest time. To celebrate the seasonal delicacy, the Vancouver Brewfest is launching a new Southwest Washington fresh hop festival, called the Vancouver Brewfest – Fresh Hop Edition. “There are many varieties of hops grown here in the Pacific Northwest, and they have different flavors and ripen at different times,” Gray said. “One of the cool things about that is that each variety has a different flavor, so the range you get in fresh hop beers is truly vast.”
For visitors that aren’t fond of hops, the festival will also feature five beers imported from Germany that have never been available in Washington. Gray said the two German breweries were connected to the festival through a local German man who lives in Clark County. “We’ve all tasted them and our guys loved all the German beers,” Gray said. “The breweries are each over 130 years old.” Visitors can also try mead and cider varieties from Southwest Washington distillers at the event.
For entertainment, the festival will feature Pac 10 football games on two big screen TVs, which will be raffled off at the end of the event. Visitors can also participate in a football pitch and toss competition with the Portland Fighting Shockwave, a women’s full contact football team. “They’ll be running our football toss competition and we’ll have local prizes from local breweries,” Gray said. “These women are fantastic – I wouldn’t mess with them!”
A portion of the proceeds will support the Mount St. Helens Institute, a charity focused on science and education. Weekend passes are $30, or $25 in advance when purchased through the Vancouver Brewfest site. For more information, or to buy tickets, visit Vancouver Brewfest online.
After the Fresh Hop Festival, the Vancouver Brewfest will host the Vancouver Brewfest – Spring Edition on March 17-18, 2017!
