Daughters of Beer

Hop picking at Eagle Road Organic Farm in Mission was a wonderful opportunity for us to enjoy the labour of love that goes into growing organic hops. Our farming hosts, Steve and Janet, guided us expertly through cutting down bines, picking off the hop flowers and placing them in racks to be dried. Once dry some are made into pellets which many brewers prefer. With an acre of hops we helped pick around 8 - 10 bines until our hands smelled of resiny goodness and still our baskets were not full. And with the sale of hops being about $15 - $25 per pound this is really a labour of love. We picked Cascade, Chinook and Mount Hood, and it was fun for us to see and smell each variety’s unique characteristics. All of them were so fragrant, light and soft … we just wanted to roll around in them! The whole family participates in the picking and the day passed surprisingly quickly for us, as we picked and chatted all day long. The bonus for us was sampling Steve’s lager (made with Cascade hops - yum) and IPA while we worked. Both were very good and the perfect pairing for hop picking.

Happy Harvest! We look forward to tasting these hops in several BC brews soon and cannot wait to taste them in Steve’s next brew.

BEER TASTING NOTES MATCH GAME!

After an evening of sampling our bounty from south of the border, we invented a game. Try and match each of the beers above with its tasting note below. Watch out, that number 6 is a tricky one.

A) “Tastes like a prom dress.” “You’ve never worn a prom dress.”

B) Grapefruit on the nose, oatmeal in the mouth.

C) “It’s like being punched in the face with a lemon. In a good way.”

D) Pairs well with the Pizzeria Farina special.

E) A good warm-up saison.

F) “It’s like hops and malt have been sent to their rooms.”

G) Pairs very well with cardamom ice cream.

H) “This beer is like eating baked lemon peel while standing in a waterfall.”

I) I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center. - Kurt Vonnegut

If anyone guesses all nine correctly we will buy you a beer.  Special thanks to Jonathan and Allison for their participation.