Hop To It

Fall in the Pacific Northwest is a significant time for brewers and beer drinkers, as it’s the season of hop harvest. The vast majority of hops used in North America for beer production are grown here in Oregon and Washington. Hops are a perishable product—they lose their character over time, as aromatic compounds and bitter oils oxidize and lose their punch—and our access to a wide variety of very fresh hops, chosen for their full potential rather than potability or industrial-strength bittering potential, explains the West Coast tradition of highly-hopped ales.