Oregon Brewers Fest By the Numbers (2015)

Every year since 2007, I've been running an annual feature called OBF by the numbers. Welcome to edition number nine. For extra special fun, I'm going to highlight some of the changes in the decade since I started brewing. But first, let's have a look at this year's rundown. As always, the bolded text refers to 2015, while the text in the (parentheses) are last year's.

• Years since inception: 28
• Total beers: 105 (88)
• Total breweries: 89 (87)
• States represented: 16 (14)
• Countries represented: 4 - US, Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands (2 - US, Netherlands)
• Percent Oregon: 50% (58%)
• Percent California: 10% (14%)
• Percent Washington: 7% (11%)
• Percent New Zealand and Netherlands: 14%
• All Others: 19% (17%)

Total styles (by broad category): 33 (25)
Lagers: 10 (6)
IPAs: 21% (24%)
__- Standard IPA: 6 (10)
__- Session IPA: 6 (N/A - 1?)  
__- Double IPA: 4 (4)
__- CDA: 0 (1)
__- Fruit IPA: 1 (4)
__- White IPA: 2 (3)
__- IPL: 2 (N/A)

By style:

• IPAs: 22 examples (21) 
• Fruit/ Fruit Wheats: 17 (11)
• Pale ale: 15 (10)
• Saison: 7 (3)
• Pilsner: 4 (3)
• Abbey: 4 (3)
• Stouts and porters: 4 (3)
• Berliner Weisse: 3 (3)
• Kolsch: 3 (1)
• Radler: 3 (1?)*

By Type:

• Beers using spices/flavors: 21, 18% (23, 16%)
• Fruit beers: 17, 16% (18, 20%)
• Belgian styles: 15% (13%)
• German/Czech styles: 11% (15%)
• Beers not brewed to traditional style: many**

Population Distribution

• ABV of smallest beer (Claim 52 Runnermass): 3.0% (3.5%)
• ABV of largest beer (Rogue Imperial Smoked Lager): 9.5% (11%)
• Average ABV: 5.8% (6.1%)
• Beers below 5.5% ABV: 47% (37%)
• Beers above 7% ABV: 18% (25%)
• Fewest IBUs in Fest (Oedipus [NL] Vogelen Berliner weisse): 0 (0)
• Most IBUs at the Fest (Caldera Dry Hop Mosaic): 100 (120)
• Average IBUs: 37 (40)
• Beers between 0 and 40 IBUs: 65% (60%) 
• Beers over 60 IBUs: 9% (N/A)

The Ten-Year Trend
For the past few years, there has been a trend toward lower-ABV, lower-bitterness beers at the fest. I think this mirrors trends in the craft beer segment, particularly as "hoppy" no longer means "bitter." There are now quite a few 40 IBU beers out there that are absolutely dripping with hops. But the really big trend is in the experimental beers made with fruit, vegetables (potatoes and mushrooms highlight this year's list), spices, and other ingredients (coffee, old tires, dog slobber***). Anyway, behold:

	2006	2015
Amber/red	8%	3%
Belgian	12%	15%
Lagers	8%	10%
Creams/Steams	5%	1%
IPAs (all)	27%	21%
Pales	8%	14%
Wheat Beers	7%	17%
Fruit beers	3%	16%
Spiced beers	5%	21%
Other ingredients	0%	18%
All fruit/spiced/other	8%	46%
Beers over 60 IBUs	26%	9%
Beers under 5.5% ABV	42%	47%
Beers over 7.0% ABV	27%	9%

Now all that remains is tasting these beers--see you down at the Fest.
 ___________________
*     10 Barrel may have brought Swill last year.
**  This is hard to parse, but the number goes up each year.  In 2006, there were almost no experimental beers.
*** Some of these may not be actual ingredients in beers this year.