Fresh Hop Festivals
By Kendall Jones
Around the Pacific Northwest, the way many beer lovers celebrate the Oktoberfest season involves fresh hop ales. After all, the USA’s entire hop crop comes from the Northwest. Our brewers have an unfair advantage when it comes to procuring the freshest hops and they do not let the opportunity go to waste. These two festivals provide a great opportunity to sample a wide variety of fresh hop beers.
Hood River Hops Fest
The many outdoor activities for which Hood River, Ore., is famous must be thirst-inducing. Perhaps that explains why this has become one of the region’s top beer destinations, with four breweries within the city limits and several more nearby.
Each year the Hood River County Chamber of Commerce celebrates the local beers scene and the annual hop harvest with big beer festival on the streets of downtown Hood River. The primary focus at this festival is on Fresh Hop Ale where more than two dozen breweries will pour. Children are welcome at the event during the day, but after 6 p.m. this becomes a grown-ups only affair.
Hood River, Ore.
Sept. 28: Noon – 9 p.m.
hoodriver.org/events-festivals/chamber-events/hops-fest
Yakima Fresh Hop Ale Festival
Each year the Yakima Valley produces 75 percent of the nation’s hop crop and this event celebrates the harvest season with beers made using the freshest hops available.
By unofficial definition, fresh hop ale must be brewed with hops that were harvested within the last 24 hours. In addition to being a beer festival, this is a judged competition with breweries competing for highly coveted ribbons with many of the judges hop farmers themselves.
The competition is fierce and the judging process is intense: after all, hops are a way of life in Yakima. On the other hand, the beer festival itself is not nearly so serious an affair. People with hop allergies should avoid this event at all costs. Along with the beer, the event offers great food, great music and an opportunity to support a worthy cause—Allied Arts of the Yakima Valley.
Millennium Arts Plaza
Yakima, Wash.
Oct. 5: 5 – 10 p.m.
www.freshhopalefestival.com
