A Celebration of Washington’s Biggest and Hoppiest Brews
The Washington Hop Mob Triple IPA Roadshow celebrates hoppy beers and showcases the talents of Washington’s breweries
The 2nd Annual Washington Hop Mob Triple IPA Roadshow (Hop Mob) is a two-week celebration of the hoppiest of all Washington-brewed beer styles. Over 30 Washington breweries signed up to produce special batches of Triple IPA to pour at a series of events around the Puget Sound region during February.
Hop Mob begins with the official Hop Mob Kickoff at Brouwer’s Café in Seattle (400 N. 35th Street) on Friday, February 6 and concludes with the Hop Mob Finale at Pike Brewing in Seattle (1415 1st Avenue) on Saturday, February 21. Sandwiched between those dates, various beer-focused bars around the Puget Sound area will host Hop Mob Roadshow events.
The Hop Mob Kickoff and the Hop Mob Finale will each feature over 30 Triple IPAs on tap—all of the Hop Mob beers. Each Hop Mob Roadshow event features at least a dozen of the beers on tap. Locations currently signed up to host Hop Mob Roadshow events include Flatstick Pub in Kirkland; the Red Hot in Tacoma; and Naked City Brewery and Taphouse in Seattle. More locations and events will be added in the coming weeks. A complete calendar of events is available on the official Hop Mob website, www.wahopmob.com.
The event showcases Washington-brewed Triple IPAs, perhaps the most boldly hoppy of all beer styles. Typically this style of beer weighs in at more than 9 percent Alcohol by Volume and features profound hop character, whether in the form of bitterness, aroma, or both.
“Triple IPA is a difficult style of beer to master and breweries that do it well are highly revered,” says Kim Sharpe Jones of the Washington Beer Blog, which is helping organize and promote the events. “Some out-of-state Triple IPAs get an enormous amount of attention and cause beer enthusiasts to swoon like preteens at a One Direction concert. Our goal with Hop Mob is to show that Washington’s brewers can produce beers that stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any of those ballyhooed, out-of-state beers. Also, it’s a great excuse to drink some really excellent stuff.”
Beyond the beer, Hop Mob is a celebration of hops and the relationship between hop farmers and brewers. To brew a good Triple IPA, brewers use a substantial amount of malted barley, which provides the elevated alcohol content. To balance-out the malty sweetness and give the beer its requisite hoppy character, brewers rely on substantial quantities of hops.
In Washington, hops are more than an ingredient, they’re a way of life. The Yakima Valley produces between 75 and 80 percent of the nation’s hop crop each year and some of the farms are operated by families that have grown hops for four and five generations.
For more information about Washington Hop Mob Triple IPA Roadshow, visit the official website at www.wahopmob.com or contact Kendall Jones at kjones@wahopmob.com.
We are currently working on a list of the participating breweries…we do know that Fremont Brewing brewed theirs a couple of days ago.