Once again I attended and enjoyed the annual Sisters Fresh Hop Festival this past weekend, and snapped a few pictures to share. First, though, a few thoughts:

Three Creeks Brewing hosted the event at its production brewery this year, rather than in Village Green Park near downtown Sisters. It was a bit different and I heard grumbling beforehand about the venue change; among the drawbacks—less parking. Or rather, less convenient parking. The production facility is located in an industrial part of town, and has limited parking to begin with; there were a lot of park-and-walkers.

One of the benefits of holding it at Three Creeks was that the tasting room was open and you could purchase wine and cider there, not just beer. Otherwise, the overall layout was similar: big tent on the lawn, a smattering of seating set up around the area, and vendors spaced around one side of the tent.

I didn’t drink much this year—seven samples was my final tally, but then when there were 40 listed beers available, there’s only so much I can consume within a three hour (or so) window. And I notice with these fresh hop beers and my note-taking, I tend to drink more slowly as I’m evaluating the fresh hops. I will note that all of the beers I had were good, varying only in intensity of hops. My favorite of the day was Deschutes Brewery’s (Portland Pub) Fresh Hop City Imperial IPA, followed closely by pFriem Family Brewer’s Fresh Hop Centennial IPA.

Finally, disclosure: Three Creeks comped my tasting package, and I paid for additional pours.

Now, I didn’t actually take that many pictures; with this fest I tend to be more focused on taking notes and end up shy on the imagery. But here’s what I did take: