Here in the Northwest I am not only proud to live here because we have great access to the great outdoors (not to mention how beautiful it is here) but we have the BEST beer in the country…you can argue with me later and I will still win. Fortunately for us we also grow the largest amount of hops in the United States.

HOPs on HOPs

Washington State boasts a whopping 75% of the hop acreage in the US and grows more than 75% of the hops in the US as well. Our neighboring state Oregon (the second best state to live in) grows 17% of the hops in the US. I’m no mathematician but that’s more than 90% of the hops grown in the country. We have so many good hops that we export them all over the globe! Not only is the Northwest picturesque…we also have perfect soil.

FRESHY FRESH…HOPS that is
Thanks to the abundance of hops in our two great states…we get the pleasure of enjoying Fresh Hopped or Wet Hopped beers every year! I sure do love me some fresh hopped beer, I look forward to the season every year. It’s like Thanksgiving without the arguing. These beers have a wonderful aroma and a grassy, herbal and citrus taste. Fresh Hop or Wet Hop beer (which ever you prefer), is made with fresh hops that are added to the beer within 24 hours of the harvesting and brewing. Wet hops still have 80 to 90% of their water content, hence the term Wet Hops. Unfortunately for the pocket book you need to add 5 to 7 times more hops with this process, which is ultimately why these beers are going to cost a little more at your local pub. But it is well worth it in my not so humble opinion. Others states are Fresh Hopping their beers now by overnight shipping Fresh Hops to their location. Fortunately for us we can add those bad boys to our beer within hours of picking! If you are interesting in trying this process at home there are an abundance of how to sites on the World Wide InterWeb.

ITs ALL in the NUMBERS
Washington State likes its beer so much we can support over 120 breweries and this number is growing every day. Which ranks us number two with the amount of breweries per state. California takes the cake with almost 250. California…you may have more breweries, but we have more hops. Although I would like to thank Sierra Nevada for the above mentioned Fresh Hopping process.  Our awesome neighbors to the south are third with about two less than Washington. Colorado is ranked forth and I gotta say, they make a pretty darn good beer down there as well. Although I am partial to Washington and Oregon beers I have to say there are so many great breweries scattered across the US. In 1900 there were 1751 small and independent craft breweries in the US, no thanks to prohibition in the twenties that number was down to zero. Since the end of prohibition that numbers has climbed back up to 1759 as of 2010 with the biggest spike around 1995. I am glad to see successful Craft Breweries all over the country helping take a chunk out of the corporate swill makers’ sales every year.

SUPPORT the CAUSE
We all have our favorites but if you are in the area of any of these small independent craft brewers in Washington or Oregon stop in and have a pint…or two.  Here is a list of some of my favorite breweries in each state and what to try…