SISTERS —

A stack of empty cardboard boxes in the corner of a tent is proof the Sisters Fresh Hop Festival is catching on in its second year.

Erin Borla, executive director of the Sisters Chamber of Commerce, said last year 800 people bought glasses to sample the offerings of a variety of Oregon breweries. Borla said barely two hours in to this year’s event, more than 500 glasses had been sold, or so the stack of boxes in the corner would suggest.

Each of the 10 breweries invited to this year’s festival created at least one beer brewed with some of the freshest varieties of the fragrant, bitter flower available anywhere in the world.

Brian Butenschoen, executive director of the Oregon Brewers Guild, said creating a fresh hop beer makes for a busy day.

About 75 Oregon breweries lie within 100 miles of the hops fields in the Willamette Valley, he said, allowing brewers to start heating up their water and malt in the morning, go meet a farmer to pick up a load of freshly picked hops, and return to the brewery to add them to the kettle.

Willamette Valley hops are primarily used for adding flavor and aroma to beers, Butenschoen said, as opposed to the types grown in Washington’s Yakima Valley, which contribute bitterness to balance the sweetness of the malt.

Because stored hops lose their flavor and aroma faster than they lose their bitterness, Oregon is one of the few places where a true fresh-hops beer can be made at all.

“It’s our time and our place to do this very ephemeral, seasonal beer that’s really only around for about a month,” Butenschoen said.

Borla singled out “CoHoperative,” a product of Fort George Brewery in Astoria, as a personal favorite. As the name suggests, it is a beverage with many fathers — 10 small-scale hop growers provided hops to the brewery to combine into the final product.

“Fresh hops is a little like cooking with fresh herbs from your garden as opposed to dried herbs from a jar,” she said. “Less bitter, and a lot more flavor.”

The Sisters event is the first of four fresh-hops festivals scheduled around the state. On Oct. 1, Hood River will host a festival of its own, and on Oct. 8, Portland and Eugene will both hold events dedicated to fresh-hops beers.

David Holmes, of Sisters, said he’s found fresh hops are an entirely different product than the shrink-wrapped, refrigerated varieties generally available to homebrewers like himself.

“Fresh hops in your beer, you look forward to that all year long,” he said. “It’s the best brew you can do.”