CREDIT TK 42 OregonStater.org The Food InnovaTIon CenTer Wall oF Fame CRAFT BEER WOULDN’T BE THE SAME WITHOUT OSU. 4no. HOPS are the soul of beer.They cut through malty sweetness with a bite of bitterness and layer on aromas ranging from fruity and floral to spicy and piney. The U.S. is the second largest producer of hops in the world, according to the USDA, and more than 98% of the crop comes from the Pacific Northwest. The modern craft beer revolution can be traced straight back to Oregon State. In 1972, the USDA breeding program at OSU released Cascade hops, a variety considered too bold by mainstream beer companies. But OSU Professor Al Haunold saw its potential. When he began working with craft brewers in the 1980s, Cascade became the defining flavor of West Coast pale ales and IPAs, tasted in the likes of Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale, Anchor Brewing’s Liberty Ale and Deschutes Brewery’s Mirror Pond Ale. HELPING SHAPE AMERICA'S PALATE Cascade remained America’s most widely planted hop until 2018, and the innovation continues with varieties like Strata. Bred by Associate Professor Shaun Townsend and released in 2018, its fruit-forward notes and herbal complexity show up in beers like Worthy Brewing’s Worthy Hazy and Sierra Nevada’s Fantastic Haze Imperial IPA. Still, you also need a place to raise a pint. In 1985, Mike McMenamin, ’73, Brian McMenamin, ’80, and Rob Widmer, ’96, helped overturn a Prohibition-era Oregon law that barred breweries from selling beer on-site. That same year, the McMenamin brothers opened the state’s first modern brewpub, Hillsdale Brewery & Public House, in Southwest Portland. Today, Oregon’s craft beer industry supports more than 46,000 jobs and generates $8.9 billion in economic output, according to the biennial Beer Serves America report.And at the center of all that is OSU.“Oregon State University is the nation’s leader in brewing research and education,” said Tom Shellhammer, Nor’Wester Professor in Fermentation Science. “We proudly train the next generation of brewmasters.” The Food Innovation Center — an OSU partnership with the Oregon Department of Agriculture — brings together science and entrepreneurship. Housed in Portland’s Pearl District since 1999, the center has helped hundreds of companies, both starting out and established, refine recipes, develop safe production systems and taste-test products (see “Yum,” page 32). From ice cream to global exports, the FIC has made Oregon a tastemaker far beyond the Pacific Northwest. Here’s a small sampling of products that got their start there.
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