Why everyone’s talking about the Strata hop
Strata, an American hop variety that was developed in Oregon, is having a bit of a moment. db finds out why.
This week, Strata, a hop created by Indie Hops in 2018 from an Oregon State University-based breeding initiative, is about to get a lot more exposure owing primarily to the beer collaboration known as Oregon Homegrown which launches on 23 May.
The event, which sees more than 20 breweries collaborating to produce beers using Strata hops, has been organised by the nonprofit Celebrate Oregon Beer which was formed by the project’s executive director also known as the beer writer Jeff Alworth.
Now, with multiple breweries set to take part, Strata hops are going to be heralded during the statewide initiative to reveal both their potential and versatility.
Speaking to the drinks business, Alworth said: “The purpose of this project was to highlight Oregon’s hop-growing region and distinguish it from Idaho and Washington. Oregon’s Willamette Valley is cooler and wetter, so some hop varieties like it better there. The state has a long history with hop-breeding, but its importance has been overshadowed by Yakima. Strata is one of those Oregon-bred hops that do best in Oregon (apparently one farm in WA has a field or two, but it doesn’t even show up in the stats).”
The hops, which have been said to have notes of passionfruit, melon, strawberry, and grapefruit are understood to be hugely versatile and also offer hints of cannabis and, as such, beers made with them are often described as “dank”.
According to Alworth, Strata’s aroma and flavours are “unusual” because “in addition to the characteristic Pacific Northwest citrus (light and gentle in Strata), it has a prominent dank/cannabis note that tracks as herbal and savoury—so it’s great in more traditional types of European beer—and this really distinctive strawberry note, which is great in IPAs and pales.”
He explained: “It’s an open-pollinated daughter of German Perle, which I think is why that herbal note comes through.”
In a recent OPB report it was noted that Oregon is one of only three states, along with Washington and Idaho, that commercially grows hops. Added to this, Oregon and Washington are also the only two states that have their own USDA-supported breeding programmes in a bid to further the movement and ultimately develop new varieties of hops for brewing.
Despite recent forward moves in craft beer from other US states, only Oregon alone can lay claim to Strata hops, which is understood to be a variety that, even today, are still being grown by as few as nine family farms in the Willamette Valley.
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To draw attention to the local growers as well as the skillset of the state’s brewers, Oregon Homegrown will take place over two weeks and is anticipated to show ways in which Strata hops can lend their flexibility and unique flavour profile to an array of beer styles.
Alworth told db that for people outside the region, he is “also trying to put a spotlight on Oregon as a region where beer culture is quite a bit further advanced than anywhere else in the US”.
He explained: “We drink way more local beer than other places, and beer is common in just about every venue you can imagine. We are much like America’s little Bavaria.”
Speaking in a recent broadcast, Alworth pointed out that Oregon has a rich brewing heritage, but one that many overlook since locals have really gotten used to the quality of what is available locally.
He explained: “We’ve had continuous brewing here in Oregon since the 1860s, but more people drink local beer in Oregon than in anywhere else in the country and you’ll find local beer in more places than anywhere else in the country. Oregonians are by nature very proud of their local culture and Oregon has had such good local beer for so long that I think we’ve kind of forgotten that it’s special.”
Describing what makes Strata unique, Alworth insisted “it has really three components that I think a taster might recognise. One is a gentle citrussy quality…it also has a little cannabis note… then it has this really big, bright strawberry note.”
Highlighting its cannabis quality, Alworth admitted that this is “a savoury note” and noted how “the hop plant is distantly related to the cannabis plant” and agreed that people often call this “dankness”.
He said: “Dankness is a term you hear in the craft beer market that confuses a lot of people, but it points to that cannabis quality, so that makes it work really well in traditional ales and lagers where you want a more herbal quality.”
Alworth observed that combining the flavours that Strata has to offer means there is broad potential for a wide range of styles to be produced. He added: “Brewers have techniques of pulling out flavours from the different hops from the brewing process and really arrange them how they want to”.
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