Over on my Hop Press article this weekend I touch on the season of festivals: including the start of Oktoberfest, the Great American Beer Festival, and the upcoming Fresh Hop Tastivals (back again this year).

Getting a little more local, Oregon has the start of their Fresh Hop Tastivals next weekend, in the small Central Oregon town of Sisters: four of these in all (one each weekend for four weeks) around the state to highlight the increasingly-popular relatively new “style” of fresh hop beers—that is, beers made with hops picked right off the vine and not dried.

I’ll have more to say about the Fresh Hops ‘fests in particular in the coming weeks.