It’s that time of the year again. The furnace kicked on today for the first time since Spring and three weeks into my college football pool, I am once again sitting at the bottom. Fall has arrived.
In addition to football and cold mornings, the start of Fall also signals the hops harvest. Being situated in the Willamette Valley; one of the largest hops producing areas of the county (yes Yakima, we know you’re number one), the annual harvest brings with it a great selection of fresh-hop beers. Fresh-hop or wet-hop beers are brewed with hops that are usually harvested no more than 24 hours prior to brewing. The use of fresh hops results in a beer with a much more pronounced hop taste and aroma.
The hops harvest also creates the back drop for several festivals around the northwest. This coming Saturday is the 6th Annual Hood River Hops Fest. This year, there will be 31 fresh-hop beers on tap. Yakima’s 7th Annual Fresh Hop Ale Festival is also this Saturday. There will be 16 northwest breweries in Yakima and a Fresh Hop Ale competition. The Oregon Bounty Fresh Hop Beer Tastival will take place over the following two Saturdays; Oct. 10th in Portland, Oct. 17th in Eugene. Information on these festivals is available on the Oregon Brewers Guild website. They also provide a list of fresh-hop beers that will be on tap HERE. While I won’t be able to make it to Hood River or Portland, I will be spending the afternoon of the 17th at the Eugene event.
If you aren’t fortunate enough to live here in the beer Mecca, you can still enjoy some great Fall seasonals. My wife pointed me to an article Bret Stetka wrote for MSN City Guides titled 10 Great Fall Beers. Unlike most ‘Great’ lists you find around the interwebs, this one wasn’t bad. It looks like Bret knows his beer.
For those of you spiritually opposed to following a link to a Microsoft site, here are his picks:
Brooklyn Oktoberfest Beer
Dogfish Head Punkin Ale
Souther Tier Harvest Ale
Victory Moonglow Weizenbock
Paulaner Oktoberfest-Marzen
Great Divide Ridgeline Amber / Fresh Hop Pale Ale
Darwin Brewery Original Flag Porter
Smuttynose Pumpkin Ale
Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale
Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen
Not a bad list. Maybe a little heavy on the Marzens, but it is Fall after all. A couple of the better Pumpkin Ales are represented and a few fresh-hop ales sneaked in too. Reading Bret’s article inspired me to make similar list. I put together a list of 10 beers that I think capture the Fall spirit. I chose only seasonals that are bottled and widely distributed. I also refrained from choosing any beers from Bret’s list.
My picks for Fall seasonals are:
Avery The Kaiser – An Imperial Marzen, weighs in at 9.3%.
Boulder Cold Hop – Labeled as a British Style Ale, tastes like a crisp British IPA.
Deschutes Hop Trip – A Fresh-hop Pale Ale, part of Deschutes’ Bond Street Series.
Founders Breakfast Stout – Oatmeal, chocolate and coffee are all used in the brewing of this Imperial Stout. A late Fall offering, available after Thanksgiving.
Lagunitas Brown Shugga’ – A unique Strong Ale brewed with brown sugar. Also a late Fall ale.
New Glarus Staghorn – One of the best American brewed Marzen/Oktoberfest beers.
Southern Tier Pumking – Real puree is used in this Imperial Pumpkin Ale.
Surly SurlyFest – Another fine beer from Surly, a Rye Ale bottled in 16oz. tall cans.
Troegs Dead Reckoning – A well-hopped Porter; similar to a Black IPA.
Weyerbacher Harvest Ale – A great example of a fresh-hop IPA.
So, there are 20 solid beers to get the season started. And, if you are in the area, be sure to check out one of the upcoming fresh hop festivals.
Cheers!
Kevin