Update: Mirror Pond Evolution

Over the weekend, a friend sent me another report from Bend about the Mirror Pond changes, alluding to the potential use of hop oil. I speculated to him about that (Brett Porter's now at Deschutes, and he was a hop oil fiend at Portland Brewing back in the day) and then decided to actually ask the brewery. What a novel idea. From the horse's mouth comes further information about the Mirror Pond rejigger. Or potential rejigger. Fascinating stuff and a look under the hood, so to speak, on the nature of recipe evolution. I quote in full (though break it into paragraphs for ease of reading).

Gary Fish:

"We brewed 4 batches that differed based on where they were brewed (at the pub or one of our other two brewhouses at our larger facility) and the hopping regimen. Yes, I think two were not dry-hopped, favoring instead a different hop-back treatment using the hop-back we built for Portland in line after our hop-back on our 50 bbl. System. We did not use any hop oil or extract in any of the brews.

We did use some hops with some of the vegetative matter removed to see what kind of result we would get. It is interesting in that, while we experiment continuously, this particular experiment has gained considerable speculation on why we are doing it. I can tell you it has neither to do with the availability of hops or their cost as all brews were essentially the same (another part of the experiment) in their hop usage. We, as I have previously stated, are continuously looking for new, creative ways to improve our beers. This experiment is not different. We do not have plans to “change” Mirror Pond, although change in everything is inevitable (hopefully for the better)."

So, while I was wrong about the hop oil, you'll see that my larger speculation about the brewery was correct. This further confirms my faith in a brewery that appears outwardly to challenge market-driven brewing and favor good beer to tradition.

But no hop oil as yet.