My wife and I currently live in Bend, OR – home to Deschutes Brewery. The Bond Street Series is a set of special beers released by the brewery outside of their regular line, and this beer is very special indeed. Hop Trip represents a very special style of beer that more small breweries are putting out celebrating the hop harvest. They load up a truck with Cascade hops at a hop farm in the Willamette valley, coordinate the brew schedule with the return trip, and when they arrive, bring the hops straight to the kettle. By going as straight from the vine to the kettle as possible, they pull out a tremendous amount of fresh hop flavor unavailable from kilned hops. Check out the video produced by Deschutes commemorating this year’s Hop Trip.
- Appearance: Pours pale orange to amber with a small white head settling in with some lacing.
- Smell: A good spicy, citrusy Cascade aroma.
- Taste: For a pale ale, this one is all hop. Spicy, oily, lingering fresh hop flavor. Citrus flavors of grapefruit, orange, tangerine. Bitterness and medium malt flavors right before the bitter and citrus finishes out.
- Mouthfeel: Medium bodied with a good carbonation. The oily mouthfeel seems to different than the typical tongue-coating I’m accustomed to, but it is very pleasant. Fresh hops give a nice difference here.
- Drinkability: Fresh hop ale the way your mother intended it (or even if she didn’t intend it … you should pick this one up)! A special beer that should not be missed.
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