Brew fest keeps Sisters hopping

Beer-lovers enjoyed the West's best brews, crafted from select freshly harvested local hops, on Saturday at the second-annual Sisters Fresh Hop Festival at Village Green Park. Outside the main tent, friends and visitors drained their glasses of seasonal brews while playing backgammon or trying their skill at the ring-toss game. Eleven Oregon breweries participated in the celebration, including Fort George Brewery from Astoria, Full Sail of Hood River, 10 Barrel Brewing in Bend and our own Three Creeks Brewing Company.

Starting back in the 11th century, creative German brewmeisters utilized the essential oils and resins inside hops as importantflavoring agents in the brewing process. Once a year in September, for a short window of time, regional hops are plucked fresh and added to brew recipes by brewers around the globe. The Pacific Northwest is home to a bounty of fresh hop fields in the Willamette Valley, and makes for a convenient reason to honor the revered plant. Dried hops don't have near the potency of those harvested right from the vine, which are used to balance the sweetness of the malts with a variety of enticing flavors like citrus, caramel, floral and smoky.

Erin Borla, executive director of the Sisters Area Chamber of Commerce, saw a definite uptick in attendance from last year, and the growing cardboard mound of empty pint-glass boxes behind her confirmed those suspicions. A steady stream of beer-lovers was still flowing into the events tent well into the evening, just in time for a rebellious set of tunes by Sagebrush Rock.

"We have a few new breweries joining us this year," she said. "There's a lot of good beer and I've heard great comments across the board. We've definitely seen the cyclists from the mountain bike festival come through in their spandex jerseys. It's always good to have events coincide with each other like this."

Volunteer Jan Gould poured samples for thirsty attendees and commented on the fun crowd.

"I'm serving Silver Moon Brewery's Hop Knob," she explained. "It's a fresh hop IPA with a medium flavor, and it's been very well received. Everyone is really interested and willing to educate people like me and teach me the terminology."

Jimmy Seifrit of 10 Barrel Brewing entertained a circle of friends and tasted a wide variety of the special beers.

"Sisters is such a great city for this type of hop celebration, and it's been really fun," he said. "Our proximity to all the fields and farms make it perfectly suited and positioned to take advantage of the harvest. The focus here is on the beer, and that's what it should be."

McMenamin's was well-represented, tossing fresh Cascade hops into their signature Thunder Cone Ale mere hours after the flowers were first picked.

Julie Pieper kept the tap happy, filling glasses and answering questions about the brews.

"We're selling tastes of the Thunder Cone fresh hop brew and also a Bavarian-style Father D's Kolsch," said Pieper, taking more tickets from suds-lovers. "What a great turnout. I think it's even better than last year. It's been flowing non-stop all day."