NO OTHER PORTLAND BUT FRESH HOPPED PORTLAND

images via DG Studios

No city can be the Portland of the north, east, south, or west due to one basic truth.

And it’s so obviously Portland.

No place on earth is closer to the most valuable ingredient in beer.

Hops grow down the road from a city with over 142 breweries in the metro area that pour 53 percent of beer for beer drinking Oregon.

I found Oregon beer in North Carolina but no North Carolina beer in Oregon.

Now another big Oregon brewery heads south.

Lucky for Portland and the locals, fresh hop season for beer means fresh hopped beer, and where will anyplace else get hops fresher than Hubbard?

The early crop.

Last night at Ex Novo I poured three fresh hopped beers down my improvident gullet and found each one better than the last. Shocking, I know. A day later I’m still shocked.

Safe at home in the garage, I challenged the fresh hopped beer memory with Coors Light and Becks. Fresh hopped Portland won.

On top of Ex Novo’s beer, one of the brewers gave a tour. This OSU brewer showed behind the behind the scenes operation.

It’s probably the same all over, but meeting friends where they’re all set up in the middle table, snagging extra chairs and pushing in, has a family feel.

Ex Novo extended the family feel. And it wasn’t due to the three fresh hopped Ex Novo beers.

Will Asheville, North Carolina, or Roanoke, Virginia rise to the Portland beer challenge?

More important, will fresh hopped Portland ever slide down?