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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

2010 Oregon Brewers Fest, By the Numbers

The last few years, I've done an edition of OBF by the numbers--and it often came off as a bit of an indictment. There weren't very many styles, a huge proportion of the beers were IPAs or pale ales, and major breweries were just bringing their same old beers. Ah, but numbers can also tell you when things are looking good. And after a few years of grumbles, it looks like the OBF has begun to shake things up. To kick off week-long coverage of the venerable Oregon Brewers Fest, feast your eyes on these numbers.

Years since inception: 23
Total beers: 81
Total breweries: 81
States represented: 16
Percent Oregon: 43%
Percent California: 22%
Percent Washington: 9%
All Others: 26%

Ale to Lager ratio: 9 to 1
Total styles (by broad category): 27
IPAs: 20% (16 total)
Belgian styles: 12%
German styles: 14%
Pale ale to farmhouse ale ratio: 1 to 1
Other well-represented niche* styles:
__- Pilsner: 5
__- Brown ale: 4
__- Cream ale: 3
__- Bock: 3
__- Kolsch: 2

Beers using wheat: 23%
Beers using spices/adjuncts: 15%
Fruit beers: 15%

ABV of smallest beer (three examples): 4%
ABV of largest beer (Flying Fish Exit 4 Tripel): 9.5%
Fewest IBUs in Fest (Upright Reggae Junkie Gruit): 0
Most IBUs at the Fest (Lucky Lab Summit IPA): 111
Minimum years in a row 21st Amendment has brought Watermelon Wheat: 9

More to come ...

_________________
*Niche styles in the Northwest, anyway.

3 comments:

  1. That's funny about the Watermelon Wheat. I suppose it's popular enough...

    ReplyDelete
  2. This looks real familiar to what another local blogger has done in the past years..... ;-}

    That's a wild array of facts and figures! I thought I'd do a straight forward list of beers being served. It may not be as complicated as yours but rather telling.

    Summer/Cream/Golden = 6
    Fruit/Herb = 6
    Pale/Amber/Bitter = 7
    IPA/IIPA = 19!
    Wheat = 3
    Stout = 2
    Porter = 2
    Red = 7
    Old ale = 1
    Saison = 5
    Brown = 4
    Belgian various = 3
    Scotch = 1
    Tripel = 1
    Sour = 2
    Bock = 1
    Pale Bock = 2
    Pils = 4
    Kolsch = 2
    Rye Lager = 1

    This breaks down to:

    65 Ales (84% total)
    *Belgian = 17%
    *IPAs = 30%

    7 Lagers (9%)
    5 Hybrids (6%)

    Interesting to say the least.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was looking for the real ale statistic and failed to locate it.

    ReplyDelete