John and Jeff's Excellent Adventure (Pt 2)

I had one job. For years I have been encouraging John Holl to come to Oregon in September for the fresh hop season. When he scheduled a book tour leg in the Northwest this week, I started thinking of our itinerary. Lightning visits to breweries, fresh hop beers only, we would descend like locusts and scrub the city of its stores. I watched social media, saw which breweries had beers out. I made notes. I was ready.

And then on John’s first full day here we went to Heater Allen, an all-lager brewery that doesn’t do fresh hops, Living Haus, a lager-heavy brewery that did have one fresh hop beer—the only we would see that day—and Wayfinder, with its many lagers and zero fresh hop beers. I managed to schedule a tour, during fresh hop season, of some of Oregon’s finest lager breweries. Well done.

(I regret nothing. We got to see Rick and Lisa Allen at Heater Allen, and drank some absolutely delightful Bobtoberfest. The malt bill is just Munich and Vienna, no pils, which gives it a full, warm-bread body, yet finishes unexpectedly dry. The combo is what you want in a festbier, a style meant to be drunk in session. Both Living Haus and Wayfinder had Czech dark lagers, signaling the return of the clouds that shaded us on our travels. And John got to drink a Cold IPA from the source, even if it wasn’t fresh hopped.)

We did better the next day. I figured the safest way to start the day was at Breakside in Slabtown, and they delivered. They have not one or two fresh hop beers, but four, and the fresh-Mosaic Wanderlust was the first beer I’ve had this year that just dripped fresh-hop goodness. It’s got that essential oil quality, without a lot of chlorophyll. Just perfect. We were on to Baerlic, which is currently pouring three fresh hops, and I started to relax. Fortunately, John went to Washington first, and in his stops at Bellingham, Burlington, and Yakima, he’d already sampled fresh hops pretty broadly. At one brewery, no names to protect the innocent, we tried a nice IPA that had no fresh hop character left (or perhaps never did). John wasn’t fooled: he knew it was an imposter. I judged his fresh-hop palate dialed in.

Some photos of the adventure, followed by an important note.

In case you missed John’s visit, or don’t live in the Northwest, you can still buy his book. I encourage you to do so. Writing is a lonely, speculative profession, and the product is actually a communication. The work isn’t complete until someone reads those words. So go buy John’s book (and all the books from writers you want to support). John’s not going to get rich writing beautiful books like this, but if you read them, he’ll be happy.

Craft Brewery Cookbook
John Holl & John Page (photography)