Hopworks Revisited

Hop Works Revisited

We hit Hopworks again last night. One of our friends had just finished the exams for her PhD and we wanted to go someplace to have some food and beer. We got there around 5:30 or so and I’m glad we did. By 6:30 there was a definite line for a table. Unfortunately, they were out of El Diablo, but they did have the newly released Red Ale. I started with the pilsner which I love. They recently brought home a silver medal at the World Beer Cup for this. It’s so nice to see a NW Brewery make pilsner a staple beer. I’d love to see more brewers do it, but I know it can be a major time/space concern. We ordered some Nachofied fries and then some pizza. It being over 90 degrees yesterday, the pils went quickly and I moved to the new Red Ale.

It’s unmistakably a NW style red. Their specs say 5.6% alcohol but it has 55IBU with a strong dry hop aroma. Luckily it has enough malt to stand up to the hops and it’s an excellent beer with food. The IPA on cask is still terrific and it’s no surprise they won a gold medal for that as well. It’s interesting to note that I doidn’t think too much of the IPA when I had it last year at the Oregon Brewer’s Festival. But it was before their brewing system was installed and they had to do contract brewing elsewhere.

I did try the Doppelbock as well, which was very nice as well. It’s not as over-the-top as some other American interpretations but has a great malt profile and the requisite smooth palate. They also had a Baltic Porter on. It’s about 8% ABV, and quite dark. It’s a little roastier than some actual Russian and Baltic ones I’ve had, but still quite nice. At first I thought it had been barrel aged because it had fairly strong and distinctive vanilla notes and almost a little hint of Bourbon. It was a big beer and a good one to end on. I ran into friends in the bar and was tempted to have another pint, but my wife interceded and brought me home. Just as well, since I had sampled a five pints over the course of a few hours anyway.

Interestingly, my wife and our friend started with the pilsner but then switched to the stout. There are a lot of people who seem to think that women don’t like stout, but I never find the evidence. Most of the women I know who drink beer like darker beers. I just thought I should point that out to all the marketing genius’s out there who seem to imply the opposite.