Craft Beer of the Pacific Northwest — Hops, Pines, and Mountains

The Pacific Northwest craft beer movement is rooted in the home brewing culture of the 1970s and the counterculture communities of Portland and Seattle. Bert Grant (Yakima Brewing) opened America's first brewpub in 1982. The region's hop-growing heritage (dating to 19th century German immigrant farmers in the Willamette and Yakima valleys) gave local brewers a natural advantage in producing hoppy ales.

The Pacific Northwest of the United States — Oregon and Washington — is the birthplace of the American craft beer movement and remains its most concentrated, influential, and stylistically diverse region. The Willamette Valley of Oregon (Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Willamette, Perle, Fuggles, and 75% of all US hops) and the Yakima Valley of Washington grow the majority of American hops — giving Pacific Northwest craft brewers an extraordinary terroir advantage. Bridgeport Brewing Company (Portland, Oregon, 1984), Widmer Brothers (Portland, 1984), and Redhook Ale Brewery (Seattle, 1981) were the pioneering craft breweries; today the region is home to some of the world's most revered craft breweries including Deschutes (Bend, Oregon), Double Mountain (Hood River), Russian River Brewing (now Santa Rosa, though the cultural roots are in the NW), Rogue Ales (Newport, Oregon), and Hair of the Dog (Portland). The region also pioneered the fresh hop (wet hop) beer tradition, using freshly harvested, undried hops within 24 hours of harvest — a style that can only be produced within driving distance of hop farms in the brief harvest window of September.

FOOD PAIRING: Pacific Northwest craft beer is designed for the region's food culture from the Provenance 1000 recipes: Local pairings: Dungeness Crab with Fresh Hop Pale Ale (seasonal), Pacific Salmon with Deschutes Mirror Pond, Grilled Halibut with Widmer Hefeweizen, Stumptown Coffee Porter with Dark Chocolate (Portland resonance). International: Sushi (many PNW breweries are in Japantown-adjacent neighbourhoods), Thai Street Food, Korean BBQ, Dim Sum.