This Saturday, September 25th, the first of the Fresh Hop Tastivals is taking place here in Central Oregon, in the small town of Sisters (home of Three Creeks Brewing): the Sisters Fresh Hop Festival. Taking place from noon until 9pm at the Village Green Park (“under the tent”), it follows the standard festival format of a $5 mug and $1 per taste (4 ounce pours). Besides the beer, there will be food, live music, and vendors present, and is family-friendly. (No wine or other alcohol, though—this is a beer fest.)

I spoke with the Sisters Chamber and found out the brewery and live music lineups:

Breweries:

• Boneyard Beer
• Cascade Lakes Brewing Company
• Deschutes Brewery
• Fort George Brewing
• Hopworks Urban Brewery
• Lucky Lab Brewing
• Ninkasi
• Old Lompoc
• Rock Bottom Brewing Company
• Three Creeks Brewing Company

And the live music is as follows:

• 12:00-1:15 Back From the Dead
• 1:30-2:45 Box Car String Band
• 3:00-4:15 Annie Vergnetti
• 4:30-6:45 Anastacia
• 7:00- 9:00 Greg Botsford & Friends

All the usual suspects are present (the local breweries, as well as others you’d expect like Ninkasi and Hopworks), and it’s the appearance of some not-so-usual breweries that have me interested: Fort George, Old Lompoc, Lucky Lab, and Rock Bottom—definitely not ones you see very often in these parts.

I don’t know much about what each brewery will be offering, but Bill at It’s Pub Night has mentioned that the Rock Bottom Hop Harvest is a “must try,” along with Deschutes’ Fresh-Hopped Mirror Pond, so hopefully at least these two will be well-represented. And I don’t recall if any of the other Central Oregon brewers besides Deschutes (and Silver Moon, though they’re not at the Fest) have brewed fresh hop beers before, so this is shaping up to be a real good event all around.