1.14
A More Expensive Habit
A hop shortage is driving up prices of a very important ingredient in the production beer.
Don’t know what a hop is?. Wikipedia to the rescue.
1.11
Hop Trip
Hop Trip by Deschutes & the valley that supplies the goods
The Deschutes Brewery in Bend, Oregon is one of my favorites. The beers they produce are marked by their clean flavors and balanced malt and hop profile. Hop Trip is now one of my favorite brews from one of my favorite breweries.
Another in The Deschutes Brewery’s Bond Street Series, Hop Trip uses fresh – and I mean fresh – Crystal hops in the kettle. The hops are from a single farm outside of Salem, Oregon in the Willamette Valley (”estate grown” hops?). Picked in the fall – hop season – they are trucked directly from the field to the brewery in a matter of a few hours. There is even a movie chronicling the trip to the hop fields.
Oh lord, what a fresh hop can do! Hints of apricot in the nose are incredibly robust but in no way overpowering. It’s like a sweet, thick perfume, not cloying at all, though, but pleasing and crisp (a common trait amongst many Deschutes brews). It’s like an IPA done right.
I bought mine from BevMo. Like all of the Bond Street ales it is a limited edition so get it while you can.
