New kid on the block - Bravo hops

Drake's is one of my favorite local beers. Recently I found an ad for their annual Washoes Tournament and Festival that will include 20 regional breweries who will all be pouring beers made from a single hop variety BRAVO. Apparently this hop variety is very new and difficult to find any information on. Hopsteiner (S.S Steiner) has the patent application for this variety, however their website makes no mention of the variety. Googling has provided little information, other than it being a cross breed and very high in alpha acids. I'll keep a lookout for it (I know Jenny Talley at Squatters is using it in her Rye beer). More to come as I learn about this new mystery hop...please feel free to comment if you have the scoop!

Sierra Nevada moves to pry offs

Now here's an interesting move. According to their website, Sierra Nevada will be changing their bottle types from twist offs to pry offs. The announcement indicates a that cap with better oxygen barrier material will be used, and that these new caps are only available in pry off form. Interestingly, oxygen barrier caps have been available for a long time. I'm curious to learn why they are just making the switch now. Maybe a superior oxygen barrier cap has been recently designed, or maybe they've found some degradatation in beers stored long term.

I had the opportunity to take a private tour with Gordon Biersch's head brewer at their San Jose brewing and packaging facility. While there I asked about oxygen barrier caps and their use in commercial breweries. It was his opinion that they are too expensive for volume use, and if you have oxygen in your beer as a result of packaging then there is something wrong with your process in the first place. Hopefully some of the beer press will scoop out some more details on Sierra Nevada's new packaging move.