Childhood friends Jim Solberg and Roger Worthington reunited in 2008 to create Indie Hops and reboot Oregon State University’s hop-breeding program with a huge donation. They were determined to do something new and enlisted Shaun Townsend, a PhD in breeding and genetics, to lead the effort. They gave him the mandate of breeding a hop that could flourish in the Willamette Valley, produce a hop with associated with strawberry, passionfruit, grapefruit, bubble gum, sage, and cannabis. Eventually X-331 emerged, which was later named Strata. Today, Peaks & Pints presents an in-house flight of beer brewed with Strata hops — a flight we’re calling Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Strata Hops.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Strata Hops
Oakshire Shred Kindly Hazy Pale
5.5% ABV, can
In 2006, Jeff and Chris Althouse were the only employees at their newly founded Willamette Brewery in Eugene, Oregon. The Althouses brewed 300 barrels that year, far short of what they’d eventually brew after 2008 when they converted Willamette Brewery into Oakshire Brewing. In 2017, Dan Russo became lead brewer managing Oakshire’s collaborative production team of seven and overseeing the Pilot, Vintage and Core Seasonal programs. Russo remains Oakshire’s longest-tenured employee of the 20-some people currently employed at the community-inspired, small-batch brewing company. This hazy pale sees a three-stage dry-hop of Simcoe, Columbus, and Strata. Each of the hops comes together to create a joyfully hoppy beer to shred with any day. Shred Kindly reminds me to embrace our passions while demonstrating awareness and respect for the world around us, yo.
Pike Out of Office IPA
6.25% ABV, can
Asking for a Friday off so that you can have a long weekend is common, and your boss wouldn’t likely think much of if you asked months in advance — but that’s a ridiculous organizational expectation of anyone who wants to play hooky today, so here you are. You can still go the quick-weekend-trip route, but you might want to ask for Monday off, too, to avoid any curiosity from your boss. If that doesn’t work, use a solid excuse (sudden death in the family, child’s summer break trip, etc.) and be prepared to provide background evidence — like social-media posts — to back up your story. You’ll need to bring beer. Pike Brewing Head Brewer Leslie Shore and her team grabbed Strata, Bravo, HBC 586, ADHA 218 hops, and puffed jasmine rice to create this light bodied IPA with notes of candied citrus peels, lightly toasted brioche, summer blooms, in addition to slight dank and pine bottom notes.
Fort George Fancy Raygun
6.5% ABV, draft – can in our cooler
Last year, Fort George Brewery traveled to Single Hill Brewing in downtown Yakima to brew Fancy Raygun “as a tribute to our highest paid employee: the Staff Astrologer,” claims Fort George. “They workday and night, clearing meeting schedules to align with our astral birth charts, diving deep into scrolls of cosmic projections to ensure better yeast productivity, higher lupulin flavor extraction, and more efficient produce deliveries to the Pub. They guard us against the dangers of late-stage capitalism, thinly veiled fascism, and the ceaseless rodomontade of American morality politics like a vigilant Raygun on a hill.” Brewed with Strata, Strata goo, Galaxy and Helios hops, this IPA has notes of robust berries, herbs, pine sap, and dankness.
Belching Beaver Tropical Terps IPA
6.6% ABV, can
A re-release of Belching Beaver’s Dam Good Decade Terps IPA from its 10th anniversary celebration in October 2022, Tropical Terps IPA is their first core beer that uses terpenes, which are aromatic compounds naturally found in citrus fruits, pine trees, hops, and cannabis. Brewed with Simcoe, Mosaic, Strata, and Citra hops, Terpenes bring to the juicy IPA new flavors and aromas that are unattainable from hops alone, featuring tropical notes of melons, mango, guava, and pineapple. The terpenes used for the beer were not derived from cannabis.
Reuben’s Brews PNW Crush
7% ABV, can
Reuben’s Brews has been experimenting with and developing hazy IPAs for several years as part of the small batch Reuben’s Crush series. Reuben’s PNW Crush features ingredients from Pacific Northwest with Skagit Copeland Pilsner, Skagit Munich Light, and Skagit Crystal-15 malts alongside Azacca, Strata, and Mosaic hops. This hazy IPA has a bright appearance, with hoppy notes of mango and tropical fruit, and herbal and floral undertones. This medium-bodied hazy is supported by a distinctive malt bill, with crisp but rich breadiness.
LINK: Peaks & Pints cooler inventory
