My latest article for The Bulletin came out last week — on Thanksgiving day, in fact. In it I highlight the latest State of Excitement Oregon collaboration beer from the Oregon Brewers Guild, the third iteration this year: Harvest IPA.

Originally intended to be a fresh hop IPA, the September wildfires interfered with the harvest schedule and required the project to pivot. Instead of fresh hops, the beer was brewed with just-harvested, freshly kilned Centennial hops, the next best thing, which inspired the name “Harvest IPA.”

The beer was brewed at Wild Ride Brewing Company in Redmond. Other Central Oregon breweries that participated in the project include Bend Brewing Company, Bevel Craft Brewing Company, and Deschutes Brewery. Ingredients were donated by Crosby Hops, Goschie Farms, PDX U-Brew/Unicorn Brewing, Country Malt Group, and Imperial Yeast. Rose City Label, Craft Canning, and WCP Solutions donated the cans, packaging, and labels.

I reached out to Christine LaRue, executive director of the Oregon Brewers Guild, to find out more about the project and collaboration in the age of COVID-19.

“COVID, in general, has made everything more challenging for sure,” she said via email. “It’s the reason we launched this program — our budget took a major hit this year, like so many others, and we had to find creative ways to keep funds coming into the Guild. Earlier this summer, as I was trying to come up with revenue-generating ideas, I thought of making it a year-round project with a new beer released each quarter.”

The article has my review, but I really liked the beer — it’s a good IPA worth seeking out.