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Leave it to the Germans, authors of the Reinheitsgebot beer purity law, to create the first modern organic beer in 1980. Craft brewing has come a long way in the last 30 years, and so has organic beer. This much will be evident at this weekend's North American Organic Brewers Festival, where you'll find one IPA brewed with Thai coconut flakes and mangoes and another brewed with yerba mate tea. Portland hosts the event and is home to a quarter of the 40 breweries, including Hopworks, whose beer is typically as hoppy as its name implies. But it switches gears for this organic Belgian-style Abbey Ale, emphasizing spicy yeast in a plum-colored beer with plum brandy notes. It's Hopworks' first foray into bottle conditioning, and some sweetness gets scrubbed off by high carbonation, saving it from the syrupiness in other emulations of the style.
WWeek 2015