Flush with Fresh Hops Festivals

There are those who’ve equated Oregon’s fresh hops beers with Beaujolais Nouveau wines in Beaujolais, France, where Gamay grapes are grown. But whereas Beaujolais Nouveau is a wine celebration that honors the harvest by eschewing the mantra, “no wine before its time,” fresh hop beers represent the apex of tasting this year’s hop harvest at a near-impossible peak of perfection. The hops, after all, are lovingly introduced to brew kettles across Oregon (and most of the PNW) mere hours after being plucked off their bines in hop farms throughout the Willamette Valley.

If you find yourself asking why that even makes a difference, ask yourself if you’d rather have a chocolate chip cookie right out of the oven or from your favorite bakery… a week after you bought it.

And lucky us: Central Oregon will host not one, not two, but three fresh hop fêtes coming soon. Three Creeks Brewpub in Sisters brings back what had been its signature event, Sisters Fresh Hops Fest, plus Bend Brewing Company’s Fresh Hops on the Pond founded in 2017, and a new event hosted at the revamped Crux Fermentation Project beer garden.

Sadly for beer lovers in, well, every part of the world that isn’t proximate to the Willamette Valley or Washington’s Yakima Valley (where nearly all American hops are grown), the very concept of a fresh hop beer remains foreign. Breweries located more than mere hours from these twin hubs, should they attempt to utilize freshly plucked cones brimming with resinous lupulin, would see the addition of brown, stale and typically moldy hop cones. Hop degradation is measured in hours, not days.

The first date on said calendar is the new Crux Hoptoberfest on Sept. 26. It will feature some brews from the Oregon Beverage Collective, formed earlier this year with the merger of five local fermentation specialists including Crux (repped by a pair of freshies including Fresh Is Best made with Centennial hops from fourth generation hop farm, Goschie Farms), Silver Moon and GoodLife (fresh hop Sweet As) meaning fresh hop beers from them are expected alongside Sunriver and, hailing from Portland, Hopworks.

Three Creeks used to host the Sisters Fresh Hops Fest at its production facility but now that it’s shuttered, the party moves to the brew pub’s back patio on Oct. 3. More than a dozen examples of the style will be pouring, including, naturally, Three Creeks’ annual Conelick’r. A twist is that instead of its usual Centennial hops — a varietal noted for its grapefruit pith and pine cone flavors, it has been fresh-hopped with an experimental hop derived from Centennial grown by BC Hop Ranch, a fourth-generation hop farm in Woodburn, Oregon.

Among the tap list will be a hazy IPA made with new industry darling varietal Luminosa (said to impart peach lemonade flavors) as a Three Creeks collaboration with Portland’s D&D-themed brewpub TPK (“total party kill” in D&D parlance), a unique fresh-hopped mead (honey wine) from Three Creeks’ neighbors in Sisters, Lazy Z Ranch Wines, and a fresh-hopped Japanese lager from Portland’s Wayfinder.

Finally, Bend Brewco brings back Fresh Hops on the Pond (as in Mirror Pond) on Oct. 2 and 3, converting what had been their World Cup viewing party venue into one that should draw just as many fans turning out to celebrate the best mashletes in the world. BBC will have five different fresh hop beers available including three IPAs (Fresh Trop as the fresh hop iteration of their Tropic Pines brewed with field-fresh Simcoe hops, Keyboard Warrior which won gold in the 2025 Oregon Beer Awards thanks to delectably pungent Citra hops and Party Laps employing Mosaic hops). The two-day celebration will feature fan favorites Great Notion Brewing — and since that keg always kicks quickly, BBC has procured a second keg of a separate freshy from IPA wizards Great Notion to ensure the Sunday crowd also gets access. It’s a distinct beer from day one so returnees will be rewarded. Then again, living in the middle of the hop industry is reward enough.

Hoptoberfest at Crux Fermentation Project

Sat., Sept. 26, 2-7pm

50 SW Division St., Bend

Sisters Fresh Hops Fest at Three Creeks Brewpub

Sat., Oct. 3, Noon-8pm

791 S. Desperado Ct., Sisters

Fresh Hops on the Pond at Bend Brewing Co.

Fri., Oct. 2-Sat. Oct. 3, 11am-10pm

1019 NW Brooks St., Bend