Why Oregon-Grown Public Hops Make Better West Coast Beers: A Brew Day with Modest Beer & Crosby Hops™
A blog post by our marketing manager Digby covering one of our latest collabs!
This was a big day. We were heading to Modest Beer in Bangor to brew a collaboration beer showcasing Crosby Estate Grown hops from Oregon ahead of our upcoming sensory sessions in Belfast and Dublin. My day started at a time that the God-fearing describe as “un-Godly”, and ornithologists refer to as a “Sparrow’s fart” for my 7AM flight from Luton to Belfast. The great thing about living in Norwich is that you’re not really that close to anywhere. The downside of living in Norwich is that you’re also not really close to anywhere, especially airports. At security, I nervously sweated my way through the scanners, my contraband of Cannabaceae safely squirrelled away in Mylar foils and ziplock bags, wrapped in enough sizes and flavours of Carhartt to make an ASOS warehouse jealous. As my backpack made its way down the little security belt, it paused at the crossroads as the person behind the x-ray scanner checked their display. Gulp…
Hops in Oregon, USA
You’re probably wondering how I got here. It all starts in 1855 as Charles Crosby makes his way along the Oregon trail in search of The Great American Dream, and the promise of (literal) gold. He settles in Woodburn, Oregon and, whilst he and descendants don’t find actual gold, they do find something much cooler (to us at least) green gold – hops. Fast forward five generations of family and Crosby Hops™ is now a vertically integrated B-Corp hop producer. Crosby is one of two Oregon-based hop producers Loughran Brewers Select work with – the other being Indie Hops – and between them they produce some of the most distinctive aroma hops in the world, helping brewers create everything from modern hazy beers to classic West Coast IPAs.
Deep Cut Cascade growing in the fields surrounding Crosby Hops TopWire Hop Project Taproom in Woodburn, Oregon.
Crosby Hops™ – Oregon Hop Growers & Producers
‘Vertically integrated’ means Crosby Hops™ uses their own farms as well as partner growers, produces them in their own hop pelletising facility, and also sells hops directly to brewers in the US, and globally, as well as through distributors like us at Loughran Brewers Select. Crosby has also developed their own patented CGX® process for creating cryogenic lupulin pellets. Their latest project is the Crosby Estate Grown Program – really leaning into hops they grow on their 1,000 acres in Oregon, widely regarded as one of the world’s premier hop-growing regions thanks to its climate, soils and focus on aroma-hop production. A lot of the Crosby Estate Grown program focuses on ‘classic’ US public hops (vs private proprietary varieties like Citra® and Mosaic®).
Boxes of Crosby Hops Cascade bound for Loughran Brewers Select in Ireland.
Crosby Hops™ Hop Sensory Sessions in Belfast & Dublin
One of the fun bits about our work here at Loughran Brewers Select is bringing top tier suppliers together, and putting the best hops in the world in front of you guys for you to judge for yourselves. And oftentimes the best way to really show off what they can do is to get them in beers and drink them with you. So, after what has been a quite frankly silly amount of time (why didn’t we get our act together earlier??), we decided to do something we’d never done before, host two back to back hop sensory sessions – one in Belfast, and one in Dublin on July 22nd and July 23rd respectively – backed up by a some banging collabs by a couple of our favourite breweries in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. We’re flying Crosby Hops™ own Nolan Russell in just for the events, and we’ll be giving away brand new Crosby Hops™ merch too. These sessions are designed to give brewers, brewery teams and beer professionals a chance to assess Crosby Estate Grown hops side by side, taste beers brewed with them, and hear directly from the people growing and selecting the lots. Not to be missed!
Enter stage left our ROI and NI Sales Manager Joshua Hampson, tasked with finding us two breweries for collab brews to showcase Crosby Estate Grown varieties – as well as locations to host our sensory sessions. Joshua is no stranger to Crosby Hops™ from his time as head brewer at Rascals – one of his favourite hops is Crosby Hops™ Cascade, which features in their core beer ‘Happy Days’ alongside Crosby Hops™ El Dorado (grown by Crosby’s pals the Desmarais family). So, in Joshua we had the perfect man for the job! He’s been absolutely blown away by the beers brewed by Chris Morris from Modest Beer over in Bangor, and his preferred style fitted public hops from Crosby Hops™ perfectly. The other brewery selected was none other than our pals at Whiplash in Dublin. Both breweries brew top tier beer, and both would be brewing with a hop never before used in Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. But more on that later….
Delivering Hops & Malt to Modest Beer in Bangor, NI
So, back to my peregrination. Joshua had picked me up from Belfast International and as I went to deposit the hop samples and merch into his van, he slid back the door to reveal a van full of BESTMALZ BEST Heidelberg malt – ready to be hand delivered to Modest! Chris had sent out a mayday call earlier to say that his usual malt supplier had a delayed delivery and so International Rescue Joshua stepped in to save the day. Safely aboard with our precious cargo (and I don’t mean Joshua and I) we set Thunderbird Two’s course for Bangor.
Once we’d arrived at Modest, we got stuck in straightaway. Chris showed us the setup he’s been evolving in his unit since his move here 18 months ago. Once the lads had got BESTMALZ BEST Heidelberg and Loughran Deluxe Torrefied Wheat into the mash we had time to catch up over coffee to take a deep dive into the recipes.
The all-important ingredients delivery for the collab brew at Modest Beer - BESTMALZ BEST Heidelberg & Crosby Hops™ Deep Cut Cascade, Estate Grown Cascade, & Centennial.
Modest Beer x Crosby Hops™ Collab Brew
So, Chris, how did this beer come about?
“I'm a big fan of brewing West Coast-style beers at the minute, so this project really excited me for two reasons really.
The first being, over the last six months, I've actually ended up being drawn towards trying and using New Zealand hop varieties in West Coast Style beers! And so it's really nice to come back to the sort of OG C-hop, American varieties, just to remind myself and then remind our customers why these hops are sort of the stalwarts of the style.”
Those OG C-hops Chris mentions are US public hops like Cascade, Centennial, and Chinook, and these hops are the foundation of the US craft brewing industry, and the backbone of iconic styles like West Coast IPAs, West Coast Pales, and West Coast Pilsners which helped to usher in our modern era of brewing. Legendary well-established beers like Sierra Nevada ‘Pale Ale’ and Bells ‘Two Hearted IPA’ use US public ‘C’ hops – in Crosby Hops™ Cascade and Crosby Hops™ Centennial respectively.
The drying room where hops are kilned at Crosby Hops™ HQ in Woodburn, Oregon.
The Best Hops for Brewing West Coast Beers
In terms of Chris’ journey:
“The West Coast style beer that sticks in my mind, was an old BrewDog - Dead Pony Club - a really old-school American pale. I remember it as that sort of classic sort of West Coast Pale Ale. And then it was probably about two to three years ago where I was finding myself brewing probably quite a lot of the hazy East Coast styles, and I had a beer from Track in Manchester, and it was one of their DDH West Coast IPAs, and it just opened my eyes again to the West Coast style, and I thought, "Why have I...moved away from that, even as a consumer, never mind a brewer?!” That reinvigorated what West Coast could be in my mind, and that set me on the track of “What can Modest Beer do in that style?””
Joshua Hampson from Loughran Brewers Select gets mashing in at Modest Beer.
The Best Malt for Brewing West Coast Beers
For anyone who’s been lucky enough to visit Portland, Oregon during hop harvest references to West Coast style beers will really hit home – come hop harvest season (August-September) the city is swimming in hops and top tier beer. But great West Coast beers rely on more than hops alone, and do any research into it and you’ll find that lots of US breweries (like Buoy Brewing) swear by German malt, and in particular BESTMALZ. A clean, highly fermentable malt bill allows varieties like Cascade and Centennial to shine, which is why breweries such as Track in Manchester favour BESTMALZ BEST Heidelberg for hop-forward beers. As Matt Dutton from Track will attest:
“We’ve spoken to a lot of American brewers who say that BEST Heidelberg is the lowest colour pilsner malt on the market. That’s perfect for us – we found the cleaner the base of the beer that we can make, the more the hops will present and stand out and sort of really be amplified.”
As well as the malt, these beers of course stand out because of the quality of the hops they use – often with some doses of fresh hops admittedly – but almost always relying on hops grown in Oregon itself.
Crosby Hops™ Estate Grown Hops from Oregon, USA
Back to Chris from Modest:
“The second reason we were excited to brew these beers at Modest was because of the access to the hops themselves! The ‘Deep Cut’ process with Cascade, and the Crosby Estate Grown element to the hops as well, which for us, as a really small brewery who might traditionally find it difficult because of our size to gain access to new varieties, or participate in lot selection, having Crosby Hops™ Estate Grown Centennial and Cascade sort of gives us that same feel in terms of using specific varieties from a specific [brewer selected] lot. I’m just really genuinely curious as a brewer as to how this 'Deep Cut’ process affects the Cascade and to see how it turns out in the beer. So, it's an exciting one for me!”
What Makes Oregon Hops So Good?
So, what is Crosby Estate Grown, and what makes Oregon so good at growing hops? For that, it’s over to Nolan Russell from Crosby Hops™:
“On average, aroma hop total oils out of Oregon are higher than those from Yakima - we chalk this up to the environment, soil, and the farmer. In terms of the terroir, Oregon has mineral rich soil from historic flooding, fed and irrigated naturally by glacial gravel beds, the Willamette River, and of snow melts from Mount Hood. Its kind weather - balanced seasons with good rainfall and then drier months for harvesting gives it the perfect natural environment for growing hops.
75% of acreage in Yakima is for alpha production, and 25% is for aroma. It is the opposite for Oregon - it is the ‘aroma hop state’. Granted the overall acreage is much different (Yakima grows more aroma hops than Oregon), but this fact is telling of why this breakdown exists in Oregon. The Crosby Estate Grown program is a celebration of Oregon terroir, designed to bring a focus to what makes Oregon versions of a hop stand out as special from other varieties.”
For brewers chasing expressive hop character in West Coast Pale Ales, IPAs and Pilsners, this focus on aroma production is particularly important. Higher oil content can translate into more intensity, complexity and hop expression in the finished beer.
Gabi McCarter is Crosby’s Senior Manager for Customer Operations, responsible for keeping many plates spinning during harvest and throughout the year – getting brewers throughout the world their hops, organising and co-ordinating lot selection on the farm in Woodburn, and also remotely when Crosby sends ‘brewers cuts’ out to breweries to assess and choose lots. It’s Gabi who decides which lots go out on the table from Crosby’s Estate Grown farms as well as their network of farm suppliers, making her one of the ultimate arbiters of makes a ‘good’ version of a hop.
“Crosby Estate Grown Centennial is fantastic, with strong lemon candy aromas, and Estate Grown Cascade is also amazing. By letting Cascade hang longer on some fields, the later harvest stuff is incredible—really tropical and fruity. Estate Grown Comet, Deep Cut (late pick) Cascade, Oregon Chinook, and Centennial. Call me a C-hop lover, but those stand out for me the most!”
Gabi McCarter - Crosby Hops Senior Manager for Customer Operations - gives Gareth Moore from DEYA a guided tour of the Crosby Hops Hop Processing Facility.
What is Crosby Hops™ Deep Cut Cascade?
Deep Cut Cascade is a ‘hidden track’ version of Cascade which was discovered almost by accident. I’ve been lucky enough to visit Crosby HQ twice now, and one of the stand-out experiences is drinking pints at their taproom TopWire – a bar in the middle of hop fields. It’s here the Crosby Hop Harvest party is held each year. TopWire is surrounded by Cascade fields, which are left strung late into the harvesting season fundamentally because it looks cool to be drinking beers surrounded by hops. Can you see where this is going yet? Over to Nolan:
Brewers come out each year to Woodburn, Oregon for their hop selection and end their session at TopWire. Their curiosity would always take them to these Cascade bines to see what the hops would be like - expecting a diesel, O/G (onion/garlic), dank profile. It was none of that. Brewers would always remark that they would like to brew with this ‘late’ Cascade given its untraditional, yet favourable profile. We trusted the brewers, and eventually pelletized some of this 'late-harvest' Cascade for brewer trials. The trials came back very positively, with many saying they would like this to be their default Cascade.
Then Deep Cut was born, and now it's got a fair chunk of acreage on our farms, and its own brand!
TopWire Hop Project - a taproom in the hop fields at Crosby Hops HQ in Woodburn, Oregon.
What’s the brewing science behind Deep Cut Cascade?
Purposefully left on the bine into late September, we allow Estate Grown Cascade cones to fully mature and develop a higher total oil content (up to 3.0 ml/100 g or 2x the industry average Cascade oil). The result is a vivid evolution of Cascade, bursting with mandarin, peach, and grapefruit, all layered over subtle pine and resin tones without any onion/garlic characteristics.
Research backs what we’re seeing in the field: harvest maturity dramatically shapes Cascade’s aroma. A study published in Food Chemistry found that as Cascade hops mature, total oils and aroma volatiles increase, while bound thiols decrease and free thiols rise, amplifying those bright, citrus-driven notes. In addition, research presented by Sapporo Breweries demonstrated that later-harvested Cascade hops exhibit enhanced fruity and floral aroma compounds alongside a reduction in green and sulfurous notes, further supporting the benefits of extended hang time for aroma-rich hop varieties like Cascade.
In short, Deep Cut Cascade delivers everything brewers love about Cascade, but with amplified fruit character and modern citrus notes that can bridge the gap between classic West Coast and contemporary hop-forward beers.
Modest Brewing with Crosby Hops™ Deep Cut Cascade, Estate Grown Cascade, & Centennial
So, back to my sweaty palms at Luton Airport Security. Our day and brew schedule was unforgiving – unlikely to leave us the time to start cutting into bags of hops at the exact point were needed for the brew, so it fell to muggins here to assist in bringing some (very, very, fresh from the BrewKegTap sample production line) hop samples over to Modest. We’d got our hop recipe down – a Crosby showcase with Deep Cut Cascade, Crosby Estate Grown Centennial, and Crosby Estate Grown ‘conventional’ Cascade, all in T90 format, on a base of BESTMALZ BEST Heidelberg and Loughran Deluxe Torrefied Wheat. At this point in the brew day, I was mostly relieved that a) I’d remembered to extricate the hop samples from their temporary home in my freezer next to the fish fingers in the wee small hours of the morning, and b) I wasn’t having to explain my (entirely innocent) plan to a probing individual possessing rather long fingers and a rubber glove.
Chris Morris from Modest Beer conducts sensory on a Crosby Hops Estate Grown Centennial T90 Pellet.
Sensory Insights on Crosby Hops™ Estate Grown Centennial
What did our lads make of the samples?
First up, Crosby Estate Grown Centennial, a hop which features in both Wicklow Wolf’s ‘Mammoth’, and in ‘Lightbulb’, Verdant’s highest volume beer. For James Heffron from Verdant, Crosby Estate Grown Centennial is:
“Sweaty lemons in wellington boots! The Oregon Centennial is high oil, always plus 3% oils, and just the most intense sherbety lemon, but without shying away from the more difficult dank notes... which work so perfectly when there's all this other fruit going on, so huge depth”
It’s endorsements like this that explain why Crosby Estate Grown Centennial appears in flagship beers brewed by some of the England and Ireland’s most respected breweries.
Standing in Modest, we’re getting James’ notes, and more – “Like a fresh can of Ting!” exclaims Joshua, and for Chris, “ It’s a pink grapefruit kind of – It’s class!”. The famous Crosby T90 pellets get a shout out too “I feel like if I blink at this too hard, it’s gonna break up.”
“The pellets are so soft. The last thing you wanna do is look in your tank and see this sort of lily pad of hops just kinda sitting there at the top. You want it to, to break up and get into the beer- It's also allowing it to dissolve as quickly as possible.”
Visual proof of the incredible texture and 'squish' of the Crosby Hops T90 pellet, which breaks up beautifully in solution.
Crosby Estate Grown Cascade Sensory Insights
I’m then given a can of ‘Dry Hopped Italian Pils’ as a palate cleanser, and reminded exactly why Joshua selected Modest as a brewery for the Crosby Hops™ showcase. This is a beautifully clean pils, refreshingly dry (an oxymoron I admit), and also pleasantly bitter. Remind you of any of those modern West Coast beers we mentioned earlier? All too soon, it’s finished, and then it’s on to a hop rub with Crosby Estate Grown Cascade.
Modest Beer Dry-Hopped Italian Pils.
“This Cascade is like orange peel, lemon. It's delicate, but assertive at the same time, like will subtly stab you in the taste buds. Crosby Cascade by far my favourite variety that I've ever worked or brewed with.”
“Oh, the smell's phenomenal. It's a big whack of citrus, isn't it? Super intense as well. it smells like it'd have a real impact, which is what you want... Now you've said Limoncello, that rings. That just lit up a yes. I can smell that exactly."
“Ultimately, let's see what it does in the beer! It'll be great to get the full circle story from Nolan. We've obviously rubbed it, smelled it, and to have it in a beer as well… cause that's ultimately what it's all about, isn't it? How it performs as a finished beer.”
“The pellets are just so soft. It just crumbles up immediately and is stuck to my fingers. It's fine to look at a spec sheet and see, “OK there's plenty of oils present in this in a numeric form on a sheet.” But when you put the thing in your hand and, break it up, it just can't not be saturated with oil, just with the texture”
This softness is one of the key reasons Crosby pellets have developed such a strong reputation, helping deliver efficient breakup and excellent oil expression in the brewhouse.
Bullhouse Brew Co Hosting Crosby Hops™ in Belfast
It’s at this point that beeped horn and a wave from a white Transit announces the arrival of Shannon from Bullhouse Brew Co.. She’s been out on sales calls all morning, but she’s made time to swing by and say hello, and just in time for the all-important collab photo with the boxes of hops! It’s Bullhouse who’ll be hosting the first of our Crosby Hops™ sensory sessions on Wednesday 22nd July at their Bullhouse East Bar in Belfast, and as well as lining up Chris’ beer to pour that day (alongside their own mega lineup) the lovely folks there are also on standby to help Modest with packaging if Chris gets snowed under with orders. It’s the kind of camaraderie we’re exceptionally lucky to have in small business, and especially brewing.
With a fight to catch, the thermometer climbing, and a few more visits to take in, it’s time to say goodbye to Chris, but not before Joshua leaves with a veritable gift box of beers which is sure to make him a very popular chap on his next visit to our office and warehouse.
Shannon Weir (Bullhouse Brew Co. Sales Co-ordinator), Chris Morris (Modest Beer), & Joshua Hampson on the brew day for the Modest Beer x Bullhouse Brew Co. x Crosby Hops Collab Beer.
Visiting Boundary Brewing
On the road again, we just find time to take in East Belfast, with a merch drop off at the fantastic Boundary Brewing, and a warm welcome as always from Jordan, who’s already down for the sensory sesh, but is busy prepping for a local news interview on the growing success of their running club. We leave him to it, as running sounds a bit too much like hard work, but not before we note with a degree of pride the rows and rows of our Loughran Deluxe Lager Malt in the brewhouse, as well the ubiquitous BEST Heidelberg, and Castle Malting® Château Spelt.
Boundary Brewing Taproom in East Belfast
Bullhouse East Bar
Then, it’s a short walk down to Bullhouse East to finalise the details of our upcoming Crosby Hops™ sensory session, sink a pint of ‘Rolling Papers’, and revel in the icy cool blast of an obscenely effective air conditioning system on one of the warmest and stuffiest days of the year as we swap notes with William Mayne, and hear the latest about the latest exciting step in Bullhouse’s journey – their move to new purpose built brewery site. Then it was a short trip over to Bullhouse’s production site, where we caught up with Tom, who showed us around the existing kit and told us how much he’s looking forward to getting his hands on their newly commissioned setup! After some incredibly thorough research and advice from Tom on our best spot for dinner, it was time to head off.
The OG Bullhouse Brew Co. brewery was (unsurprisingly) housed in an old barn which was formerly home to a bull.
Crosby Hops™ Sensory Session in Belfast – Book Now!
Joshua dropped me at a completely airless Belfast International, and on landing at Luton I cursed the lack of aircon in my car for the late drive home. It was absolutely worth the long day though, to see the collab take shape, appreciate the thriving scene in Belfast, and to lay the groundwork for what’s going to be a fantastic day on the 22nd July. We can’t wait to try the finished beer, watch Nolan strut his stuff (he’s quite the showman), compare notes with you all, and put Crosby’s selection in front of you for you to judge for yourselves.
If you’re interested in Oregon-grown hops, West Coast beer styles, hop selection, or simply want to taste the differences side by side, make sure you join us at our Crosby Hops™ sensory sessions in Belfast (22nd July), or Dublin (23rd July) by emailing joshua@brewersselect.com
Joshua Hampson from Loughran Brewers Select leaves Modest Beer with a full box of beer for team at Loughran Brewers Select HQ.
Afterword
After the anxiety of moving my precious cargo through Luton Airport security, coming home from Belfast with a lighter bag was a doddle. Until I was followed through and out of the airport by armed policemen. Apparently, my appearance matched someone they were looking for. True story…
AUSFEST
AUSFest celebrates Australian hops – their bold flavour, versatility, & ability to unlock exciting new profiles that elevate your beer. Explore showcase collabs from Northern Monk × Bridge Road, Closet × Bright, Moor × Mountain Goat, Saint Monday × Young Henrys, BEAK × Future Brewing, & Mason × Aether – and see what HPA’s proprietary hop varieties can do.