Eugene Fresh Hop Tastival 2009

Yesterday I attended Oregon Brewers Guild’s Fresh Hop Tastival in Eugene. A couple of my friends were no-shows; leaving only my wife Tiffany, my friend Jesse and myself to battle the rain. We showed up around 1:00pm to find a decent sized crowd huddled under the canopies.

Based on the glowing reviews from Bill at It’s Pub Night, my first beer was the Fresh Hopped Mirror Pond from Deschutes. I have to say, after being built up so much, I was a bit disappointed. The Mirror Pond tasted flat. Tiffany got a Hop Trip that had the same problem. Then I realized this might not be the beers’ fault. The servers were pouring from the taps into pitchers, then serving from the pitchers to glasses. The Deschutes taps hadn’t received a lot of love by the time we arrived, evident by the small amount of tickets in their jar. My guess is that the pitchers had been sitting for a while before our pours.

Next up, I went searching for Laurelwood’s Hop Bale Pale; the only beer using Amarillo hops. I got side tracked on the way and picked up the Crystal Missile from New Old Lompoc. This was the first fresh hopped Saison I have ever tried. I was a little skeptical as to how well a Saison could stand up to being fresh hopped, but the Missle made me a believer. Later, I tried another Saison; Upright Brewing’s Fresh Hop of Bel Air. The hops gifted similar flavors in both Upright’s and Lompoc’s beers, despite using different varieties (Crystal and Liberty).

After asking around, I found our that Laurelwood didn’t make it down to the event, so I was unable to try the Hop Bale Pale. We wandered over to the Oakshire taps where Brewmaster Matt poured us some beer.

First, Matt is the shadowy figure on the left; the sun wasn’t doing my shoddy photography skills any favors yesterday. Next, I want to apologize to the guy on Matt’s right. I didn’t get a chance to take down his name before we left. Between the three of us, we tried all of the offerings Oakshire had available; Cascade Conundrum, Harvest Ale and Red Nugget. I’ll agree with Bill; Conundrum would work fine without being fresh hopped (and here’s to hoping some kegs start popping up around town), but I still enjoyed it thoroughly. Red Nugget was fantastic, my favorite of the beers Oakshire brought. I would not be upset if they found a way to squeeze a similar red into their seasonal rotation next year.

I was trying Beer Valley’s Fresh Hopped Black Flag and Jesse had just grabbed Rogue’s Fresh Hop Ale when the rain let up enough for my wife to snap a picture.

I’m the guy on left enjoying the stout, Jesse is on the right, looking questioningly at his beer. As you can see from the difference in picture quality, I am not the one that should be manning the camera.

Next up was Double Mountain’s Killer Green and Astoria’s Hoptimus Prime 2.0. Jesse picked Killer Green as his favorite beer of the event. I picked the Hoptimus as beer most likely to eat though my stomach lining. My wife noted that it could probably be used to strip paint.

We made our rounds to the rest of the bigger guys. Bridgeport’s Hop Harvest, Mac’s Fresh Hopped Amber and Full Sail’s Lupulin were all middle of the pack; Mac’s being better that I had anticipated. Widmer’s Hopturnal Emission received the “What the fuck was that?” award from all three of us for it’s aftertaste. I thought it tasted like mushrooms. Jesse picked nuts. Tiffany went with the forest floor.

At some time around here, I stumbled upon my favorite beer of the event, Hopworks’ Fest of Fury. This was the only Octoberfest beer in Eugene. The Willamette hops worked perfectly with the spicy flavors of the Marzen.

Before we left, I tried Ninkasi’s Nugg. E Fresh. I have to say, this one was a bit of a let down. It was labeled as a red, but tasted a lot like their Maiden the Shade Golden Ale. The Nugget hops were very low key. If I had tried the beer somewhere else, I would not have guessed it was fresh hopped. I think the Fresh Hop Rye Tiffany got from Calapooia did a much better job of showcasing Nugget.

I finished off the afternoon with another try at the Mirror Pond. This time it was poured directly from the tap and tasted much better. I can’t agree with Bill that this is best fresh hopped beer of the year, but it is near the top. Over all, nothing I tried was bad. There were a couple under performers and a couple that seems like they were purposely hopped to the point that they would assault the drinker. Most of the beers I tried, I would drink year round if they were available.

My top five of the Tastival are:
1. Hopworks’ Fest of Fury
2. Double Mountain’s Killer Green
3. Deschutes’ Fresh Hopped Mirror Pond
4. Oakshire’s Red Nugget
5. Lompoc’s Crystal Missile

When we left, there were enough people at the Tastival that they were erecting a third canopy for seating. I hope the event was success for the Oregon Brewers Guild and thanks to all the breweries who participated.

Cheers!
Kevin