March 28th - Hopworks Urban Brewery

March 28 – Hopworks Urban Brewery

Hopworks opened last Tuesday and apparently was mobbed on the first day. Since they had our El Diablo on, we wanted to get over and taste it. We had planned on getting there at about 5:00pm and were hoping to beat the rush, but I got delayed at work and didn’t get there until about 5:30pm. My brewing partner was already there at the bar when my wife and I got there.

They’re serving the El Diablo in goblets, which is good since it clocks in around 8.5% alcohol. The nose is spicy with good candy and honey notes. Although it tastes fairly full on the palate, assistant brewer Ben Love, let us know that it had a terminal gravity of 1.3 plato (about 1.0005) which makes it drier than most pale ales. It’s one of the best domestically produced Belgian Golden’s I’ve had. Yes, I’m biased, but I was really surprised at how authentic it tasted. It’s considerably drier than most of domestic Belgian style ales. I was also delighted to get a couple of bottle to bring home.

In addition to the El Diablo, I tasted through a fair amount of the other beers. The HUB lager is still one of my favorites. I’m very fond of the pilsner at Max’s Fanno Creek, but the HUB lager is no slouch. It’s a little lighter in body than Max’s, but is very clean with a great hop bite and is full of Saaz flavor and aroma. After the El Diablo, it may be my favorite of Hopwork’s beers. The Crosstown Pale is a hoppy but incredibly drinkable pale. It’s got an assertive hop character but doesn’t spill over into IPA territory. It’s a terrific food beer, because it has a lot of character but isn’t big and overwhelming. The Velvet ESB is more English style with a great malt character and a more subdued hop character. The Survival Stout, with its grain bill of barley, wheat, Oats, Amaranth, Quinoa, Spelt, and Kamut, is a great beer as well. It has an intense coffee and roast/black malt nose, but has a smooth, rich, round character to it. IPA is still a hallmark NW style and Hopworks is a great example of the style. It’s got a great malt backbone to stand up to the hops, but the emphasis is still hops. I had tried the beer previously at last year’s Oregon Brewer’s Festival, when the beer was being brewed at Golden Valley in McMinnville. The current version brewed on-site at Hopworks seems more balanced and more intense though.

When we had brewed with them, the test pizzas that their chef was working on had been impressive and the large pepperoni we ordered was actually very good. I’m form NY originally and in NY we’re pizza snobs. Luckily their chef learned to make pizza on the East coast and the pizza is really good. I ended up eating entirely too much, which was probably OK since I ended drinking too much as well (my wife wasn’t drinking and she as driving). I’m looking forward to going back, but am going to wait at least a few weeks until the crowds die down a little. If you haven’t been, you should. It’s well worth it.