THE STORY OF A FRESH HOP BEER

September 7, 2023

For brewers and beer aficionados, it’s almost like Christmas morning.

We’re talking fresh hop harvest time in the Pacific Northwest, a glorious period when craft breweries dispatch delivery vans to the farms to collect the aromatic bounty. And then race back to the brewhouse as quickly as possible.

Right now, dozens of delicious fresh hop beers are being released in Oregon and Washington, ranging from IPAs to lagers.

Out of an abundance of curiosity, Astoria Beer Zone hit the road to learn how one of those beers – Reach Break Brewing’s Fresh Hop IPA – came to be.

It’s a journey that started with a drive from downtown Astoria to Crosby Hop Farm in the Willamette Valley shortly after dawn and ended with 80 pounds of fragrant Centennial hops being loaded into the tank that afternoon.

Well, not quite ended. The beer took another week to reach perfection before being kegged and canned.

After sampling the batch that day, Josh Allison, Reach Break’s founder and head brewer, smiled broadly.

“Here we are. We got it,” he said.

And now so do the rest of us.

Justin Kobe adding fresh hops to the tank.

Read about fresh-hopping in The Thirsty Growler column appearing Sept. 7 in The Astorian.

North Coast craft breweries still riding high

The North Coast craft beer scene kept growing in 2023, seemingly immune to a nationwide slowdown.

The growth was plain to see in a chunk of downtown Astoria: Reach Break Brewing doubled the size of its taproom; Portland’s Breakside Brewery opened a brewpub; and work began on a gluten-free microbrewery in the old Sunflower Dairy building.

Q/A WITH KYLE CHRIESTENSON OF BREAKSIDE BREWERY

Most business people dream of having a corner office one day. Kyle Chriestenson already has his – at the corner end of the bar at Breakside Brewery’s downtown Astoria brewpub.

That’s where he can often be found, greeting customers and tending to the demands of being a general manager. That includes importing the right combination of kegged beer from the Portland brewery and ordering enough fresh oysters to satisfy a growing number of customers.

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