Oskar Blues Releases Southern Hemisphere Hop Fest Participating Breweries

1 Shares

Colorado’s Oskar Blues Brewery, the peeps who brought you Burning Can, announced in December a new festival with Stoney’s Bar and Grill called The Southern Hemisphere Hop Festival. The fest will focus exclusively on beers and food from the other side of the world and it is sponsored by TicketFly, Drizly, andArgonaut Liquors. Proceeds from the event will go back to the Oskar Blues CAN’d Aid Foundation. CAN’d Aid Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Oskar Blues Brewery, is a 501c3 nonprofit that has raised thousands of dollars for charity.

The Festival was inspired by the newest Oskar Blues Beer, The Oskar Blues IPA, which features an all Australian Hop Lineup including: Vic’s Secret, Ella, Galaxy, Topaz, and Enigma. The Festival however, will include hops from not only Australia, but also, South Africa and New Zealand as well.

Oskar Blues has confirmed around 20 craft breweries signed on to showcase their beers in the fest. Each brewery has created two Southern Hemisphere Beers, some specifically for the event itself, and event attendees will get the chance to sample each one and vote on their favorite. The winning beer will be placed on tap at Stoney’s for a full month. Because Southern Hemisphere Hops are still incredibly hard to find, Oskar Blues Director of Brewing Operations, Tim Matthews, helped many of the breweries source the hops for the beers showcased.

Aside from the Oskar Blues IPA, OB will offer two other Southern Hemisphere Hop beers at the fest – IceyPA, a collaboration with Denver-based Icelantic skis. For this brew, the brewers turned to New Zealand’s more herbaceous hop offerings in Pacific Gem, Rakau, Nelson Sauvin and Dr. Rudi. KOALAfied IPA is a new Belgo IPA with a deep ruby red malt color and loaded with Ella, South African, and Galaxy Hops at around 40 IBU and an ABV of 8-9%.

The fest will offer early access to VIP attendees starting at 6:00pm, GA will open up at 7:00pm and run until 10:00pm on February 27th. The VIP attendees will also be given a chance to taste some Southern Hemisphere foods provided by Stoney’s Bar and Grill. Live music from Boulder based funk band, Hot Soup, will kick off at 9:30pm. There will also be a booth onsite where attendees can check out actual Southern Hemisphere hops – as well as some American hops – so you can getchyer hands dirty and experience the difference. Brewers will also be on hand to answer questions as well.

The other breweries participating in this inaugural festival of specialty hops are mainly from Front Range breweries. The initial expected list of participating breweries and their Southern Hemisphere Beers are listed below:

Jagged Mountain Craft Brewery

Dingo Ate My Baby! & Another Shrimp on the Barby Mate! using experimental South African hops

Mockery Brewing

G’day Hombra Oaked Black Pale Ale – 6.0% ABV using Chilean malts and NZ and Aus. Hops. & Cocoa Coconut Stout – 7.7% using Chilean malts and NZ and Aus. hops

Upslope Brewing

Imperial IPA – 10.0% ABV & Topaz S.M.A.S.H. Pale Ale using Galaxy hops (Aus.)

Call to Arms Brewing Company

Freedom Fries Intercontinental Saison – 7.6% ABV & Great Gam Gam, Imperial IPA, 10.5% ABV using Nelson Sauvin hops (NZ)

Lone Tree Brewing Company

Latitude 41S Imperial Red IPA -9.0% ABV using Motueka hops (NZ) & TBD

Strange Craft Beer Company

Southern Cross single hop Belgian Pale – 4.0% single malt single hop Belgian Pale. (Patagonia base malt and Galaxy hops fermented with Westmalle yeast)

Nebulous Red IPA – 8+%Red IPA with Patagonia malts and two SAB hops (92P2/4 and XJA2)

City Star Brewing

Aces and Eights Imperial Red Ale – 8.0% ABV with Vic’s Secret and Enigma hops (both Aus.)

Avery Brewing Co.

Raja Double IPA – 8.0% with Galaxy and Vic’s Secret (both Aus.) & TBD

Crazy Mountain Brewing Company

Boohai Red Ale – 6.0% ABV with Nelson Sauvin and Pacific Gem hops (both NZ)

Odd13 Brewing

Sir Joshua Black IPA – 6.1% ABV and Interpatagalactic Tart Dry-hopped Sour Blonde – 6.5% ABV using Galaxy (Aus.) and Kohatu (NZ) hops

Comrade Brewing Company

TBD (but will be using a 100% Southern Hemisphere hop bill with Patagonia Malt and Extra Pale Ale Malt from Chile)

Grossen Bart Brewing

TBD

Wits End Brewing

TBD

Ratio Beer Works

TBD

As an added bonus, Drizly, the on-demand alcohol delivery service that brings beer to your doorstep in under an hour’s time, will also provide free delivery on any Colorado based orders which include Oskar Blues IPA the week leading up to the festival, as well as the week after (February 19^th – February 26^th & February 28^th – March 6^th.)

About Oskar Blues Brewery

Founded by Dale Katechis in 1997 in Lyons, Colorado, Oskar Blues Brewery launched the craft beer-in-a-can apocalypse with hand-canned, flagship brew Dale’s Pale Ale. Today, Oskar Blues is one of the fastest growing breweries in the country and operates breweries in Longmont, Colorado and Brevard, North Carolina, while producing 192,000 barrels in 2015. The original canned craft brewery continues push innovation with the announcement of an Austin, TX brewery in April of 2016 and creations like The Crowler while it distributes to 46 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., as well as parts of Canada, Sweden, and the U.K.

In 2013, Oskar Blues founded the CAN’d Aid Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity that offers grassroots grants to those making a difference in the areas of community, the environment, music, and more. In 2015 alone, CAN’d Aid partnered with 52 organizations and provided nearly $400,000 in charitable contributions, bringing the total amount raised $1.9 million to date. CAN’d Aid’s “do-goodery” efforts include: