With Draft Beer Sales Down, more Fresh Hop Beers Getting Canned

Fresh hop beer season is a celebrated time of year, but draft beer sales are still 30% below pre-pandemic levels and this year and the Oregon hop harvest is also in decline. The recent explosion of satellite taprooms and events like the Portland Fresh Hop Pop-Up Beer Fest helping to make up ground during the freshest time of year.

Many of Oregon’s craft brewers have just released or are about to release their first fresh hop beers of the season. In the past, breweries rarely canned their fresh hop beer because it was intended to be drank fresh and sell out as quickly as possible in order to best highlight the unkilned whole cone hops. During the initial years of the pandemic many breweries pivoted to canning their entire fresh hop runs for what was supposed to be a temporary adjustment. But with taproom sales still lagging behind, the amount of packaged fresh hop beer and potential for past their prime cans or bottles is higher than ever.

Breakside Brewery will can five of their seven fresh hop beers, StormBreaker Brewing canning the majority of their eleven fresh hop releases this year. And Zoiglhaus Brewing is scaling their fresh hop beer releases back to just Oktoberfresh and Kolsch, and canning both of them.

Colin Patrick Rath, co-founder of Migration Brewing says, “Fresh hop season is about celebrating our local ingredients. Sadly, fewer customers are raising a glass in brewpubs. We’re down 15-20% in our pubs this year.” 

According to the U.S. Brewers Association, nationwide draft beer sales are still nearly 30% down from before the pandemic. That’s 2 million fewer barrels of beer being sold, which disproportionately impacts craft brewers that rely more heavily on draft sales to survive.

“Threshold Brewing will be canning all four of our fresh hop beer releases this year,” said Sara Szymanski, owner of Southeast Portland's Threshold Brewing & Blending. “That’s a first for us. We’ll also release draft and kegs on Sept. 8, and encourage people to come into the pub to taste and then take some cans home. As a small brewer, margins are even thinner with cans versus draft, but it’s always important to meet the customer where they’re at, whether that’s at home or at our brewery.”

Crux Fermentation Project out of Bend, OR is releasing four fresh hop beers, including one from its non-alcohol (NA) line, NØ MØ Fresh Hop IPA, which is one of the fastest growing beer categories.

Fresh hop season usually lasts for 6-8 weeks of ripeness. To celebrate the season and get in as many fresh hops as you can, while you can, check out the Fresh Hop Pop-Up Beer Fest in Portland from Sept. 15 - Oct. 1st, the Sisters Fresh Hop Festival on Sept. 23rd, the Portland Fresh Hops Festival at Southeast Portland’s Oaks Amusement Park on Sept. 29-30, and the Hood River Hops Fest on Oct. 7th

Oregon’s 400 breweries generate more than $8.7 billion in economic output, $2.8 billion in wages and help create 50,000 jobs in the state, of those nearly 1,300 are Oregon agriculture jobs. But craft beer sales are down for the first time in decades. According to the U.S. Brewers Association, total beer volume is down at least 3%.