Your weekly roundup
A few further notes from this past week in craft beer:
– English Setter has released a limited run of 22-ounce bottles of its various beers in time for holiday giving, available at the Spokane Valley brewery. (And look for the return of the Puppy For Christmas orange chocolate porter on draft as soon as Tuesday.)
– The Lantern Tap House is taking preorders for tasting glasses for its third annual Winter Beerfest on Jan. 14-16, featuring more than 30 seasonals from breweries throughout the Northwest along with live and DJ music in the festival tent. For $15 you get a souvenir glass and five tasting tokens; the first 50 preorders also receive a custom coozie. Glasses sold out by the second day of last year’s event.
– Looking further ahead on the festival front, Sierra Nevada’s second Beer Camp Across America will make one of its six stops nationwide in Seattle next June 11; tickets go on sale in February. The traveling event will celebrate the release of six collaboration beers by Sierra and 30 other brewers across the country, including Yakima’s Bale Breaker.
– Finally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that Pacific Northwest hop production was up 11 percent over last year, to 78.8 million pounds, despite warm early-season temperatures and reduced irrigation from a limited snowpack.
State-by-state increases included 30 percent in Oregon, 26 percent in Idaho and 6 percent in Washington, which produces 75 percent of the nation’s hops. Cascade, Zeus, Simcoe, Centennial and Columbus/Tomahawk were Washington’s leading varieties, accounting for 52 percent of the total crop.
The estimated value of the U.S. crop increased even more – by 33 percent, to $345.4 million – with record high prices thanks to increased demand from craft brewers, particularly for more expensive aroma varieties.
* This story was originally published as a post from the blog "On Tap." Read all stories from this blog