More, more, and yet more fresh hop quick notes! This edition features three Bend breweries (all acquired in the course of writing this article), and all Strata hops. Strata has been a popular fresh hop this year, the most common one used in the local brews (followed by Centennial). Let’s go!

GoodLife Brewing – 150 Hippies Fresh Hop Pale Ale

Usually, in years when there’s not a global pandemic, GoodLife invites the community to donate homegrown hops for this beer, so it’s a wildcard of varieties that end up in 150 Hippies. This year the brewery wisely opted not to invite problems and went straight for farm-grown Strata hops—150 pounds per 30 barrel batch.

6% ABV with 40 IBUs. There’s no packaging date; I drank it on September 23. My notes:

Pretty clear, bright copper color. Fruity, floral notes; orange blossom, lilac, grapefruit juice, papaya. Flavor is big and fruity-sweet, like caramelized mango and papaya chunks, with an undercurrent of corn husk and a sweet flowery character. Nice maltiness underlying the hops along with a decent moderate bitterness overall.

Bevel Craft Brewing – Green Flag Strata Fresh Hop IPA

Most of the fresh hop beers I bought this year were cans at the store in a (somewhat) covid-safe shopping trip. Bevel doesn’t can so ultimately I picked up a growler to go of this beer from the brewery, so I could still drink it at home. Here’s Bevel’s Untappd description for this Strata-infused ale:

This much anticipated beer used 100lbs of fresh Strata hops from Roy Farms in Yakima, WA. This balanced IPA base lends way to the perfect fruit forward flavors Strata brings like ripe berries and sweet melon with a subtle bitterness.

It’s 5.7% ABV with no mention of IBUs. I got a growler of this directly from draft on September 23 and drank it the next day. Notes:

Gold colored, unfiltered appearance. Fruity aroma and a touch of dank cannabis. The fruit is non-descript but “tropical” (kind of what I think of as “orange” fruit (as opposed to green or red)). Big fresh spicy-dank-green flavor, touch of raw tobacco, citrus oil fruitiness. Minty in the spice, refreshing, with a fresh pop of chlorophyll. Really quite nice with excellent fresh hop saturation.

Boss Rambler Beer Club – The Fresh Fresh Strata Hazy (“HZY”) IPA

This is the second of the three fresh hop beers Boss Rambler released, brewed in the ultra-hazy style that is the brewery’s signature. No description but it was brewed with 150 pounds of fresh Strata, or 12 pounds per barrel according to Boss Rambler.

It’s 6.5% ABV, with no mention of IBUs. It was canned on September 17, and I had it September 24. My notes:

Haziest hazy that ever hazied, looks like turbid wheat slurry. Prickly green spicy aroma but can’t really say if it’s “more” aroma (fresh hop-wise) or just a big hazy IPA nose. Flavor is fairly saturated with dank mango, fresh nettles, and a hint of chives. Lots of fresh hops greens, to the point of hop burn—albeit gentle, smooth hop burn. But… that could also just be a big, heavily dry-hopped hazy, not sure I’d be able to call it out from a blind lineup as a fresh hop without knowing ahead of time. But tasty!