After sampling Deschutes’ “Maiden Oregon” on my solo tour of Oregon’s Belgian Beauties, I am now on a quest to find other beers made to celebrate Oregon’s 150th birthday. Another present to unwrap? Hopworks Urban Brewery pulling out the big guns with 150 lbs. of Oregon hops.
“Is this even possible?” I asked after polishing off a growler that my neighbor apparently scammed off the folks at Hopworks. It was, in a word, a hopgasm. If “treacly sweet” describes something that’s over the top in sweetness, what do you call something so full of awesome floral bitterness that you knock down a growler without even thinking about it?
Delicious as it is, I’m pretty sure this 150 pounds of hops thing can’t be true.* In fact, it is totally pieced together from the Internet. This post will likely show up on snopes.com tomorrow next to the Nigerian prince scam, but I’m drunk so who cares?
First, my friend Brooke posted on Facebook that there was a beer with 150 lbs of hops at Hopworks Urban Brewery. I was like “HFS! For reals?” Because that’s how I talk on Facebook. And I accept that it must be true BECAUSE IT’S ON THE INTERNET.
Then, our neighbors show up tonight to invite us out to H.U.B. We decline because we’re stupid. And we’ve already got our Butternut Squash, Ginger, and Leek soup on. I tell my neighbor, “Oh dude, I heard about this insane hop-bomb at Hopworks. I think it’s a seasonal. You gotta try it and tell me what you think.”
Then two hours later, our neighbor shows up with a growler full of it! He says, “Dude, they totally did NOT want to sell me this! It’s the best bitter beer I’ve ever had! And when you blog about this later, use a ton of exclamation points!”
Anyway, Hopworks’ Oregon 150 Super Hopped IPA, which isn’t listed on the damn Hopworks website or the Hopworks blog (which is apparently updated about as often as I post on BS Brewing), is outstanding.
Floral, resin-y, grassy, hop heaven. Apparently they’re selling it for $6 for 16.5oz, according to Brewpublic. And apparently, they will not sell it to you in a growler unless you beg and plead like my neighbor, God bless him…
So I swear that I’ll call Hopworks tomorrow and get the straight story on the “150 pounds of hops” rumor. But in the meantime, get yourself over there and grab a glass; it’s a great reminder why Oregon’s such a great state for beer.
* And I stand in awe of the brewers at Hopworks. I spoke by phone to someone in the office (I need to talk to a brewer later) and they said, “yeah, that IS a lot of hops. But we used 150 lbs. in that batch.” Wow.