On August 25, Hopworks Urban Brewery will host the inaugural Salmon-Safe IPA Festival at its SE Powell location in Portland. The unique beer festival brings together 21 craft breweries from around the country, each having crafted beers all made with Salmon-Safe certified ingredients. Hopworks, the first-ever brewery to have a certified Salmon-Safe brewery site, is a more than a fitting location to host the new festival. The Salmon-Safe IPA Festival will go down in two sessions, an all-ages session from noon to 4 p.m. and a 21+ event that runs from 5-9 p.m. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door.
For the occasion, each participating brewery has crafted a special brew and all ingredients are sourced directly from farms that make it a priority to protect clean water and the vast biodiversity the Pacific Northwest watersheds are home to. Hopworks Marketing Manager Eric Steen told us what he’s most looking forward to, how they chose the participating breweries and what kinds of beers you can expect at the festival. (Hint: they are hop-forward.)
1) Being the inaugural festival, what are you looking forward to most?
Of course we’re very excited to try the beers that are part of the festival, but perhaps what we’re looking forward to the most is featuring 21 breweries using Salmon-Safe certified hops and malt.
2) How did you go about choosing the participating breweries? Are all of the participating breweries Salmon-Safe in the beers they produce?
First we reached out to Salmon-Safe hop farmers and Mainstem Malt and we asked them which breweries already source Salmon-Safe. We made sure those breweries were a part of the festival. We also asked the farmers which breweries have showed interest but perhaps haven’t made the commitment to start using Salmon-Safe ingredients yet. All breweries were specifically requested by the hop farms and maltster.
3) Can you give us any special insight into the beer Hopworks is making for this event?
Hopworks will brew two beers: The first is our Fresh Hop Goschie Estate pilsner. It’s a pilsner brewed with Crystal hops and aged on fresh Hallertauer Abiqua hops. The hops and Lyon 2-Row malt all come from a single estate, Goschie Farms in Silverton, Oregon. Next, we will be brewing a Willamette Meridian IPA. The original “Willamette Meridian” was established as a guide for the early Oregon settlers populating this territory. Our version, in beer form, is a guide to using Salmon-Safe ingredients to create the beverage so many of us enjoy in the Pacific Northwest. We used grain grown in Walla Walla, Washington, and dosed it with generous amounts of Salmon-Safe Crystal, Azacca, Meridian and Willamette hops.
4) Who will be speaking at the festival’s panel discussions? Which discussion are you most excited to hear and why?
We’ve lined up engaging panel discussions with Salmon-Safe certified partners to discuss why Salmon-Safe certification matters, and how breweries and farmers are working together to keep our waterways and our planet healthy. Panel One is Brewing Healthy Watersheds — how craft brewery Salmon-Safe sourcing can help restore rivers. Panel Two is on clean water for salmon — how Northwest hop and malt farmers are leading a market transformation.
