Hood River brewery, Ferment, announces their newest Top Ferment and Bottom Ferment releases, Bright West IPA & Helles Bock.

Hood River brewery, Ferment, announces their newest Top Ferment and Bottom Ferment releases, Bright West IPA & Helles Bock.

image courtesy Ferment Brewing Company

Press Release

Ferment Brewing Co. in Hood River, today announced the release of two new beers—Bright West IPA and Helles Bock—in 16 oz 4-pack cans. The beers are available now as part of the brewery’s Top & Bottom Ferment series, which consists of two limited beers that explore hops, malt and yeast, and are released in tandem with each other—one of which is a top fermenting ale and the other is a bottom fermenting lager.

In the Top Ferment half of the release, beer drinkers will find the return of Bright West IPA, a beer that is a crowd favorite at Ferment’s taproom in Hood River and in the beer aisle at local beer shops. Chinook, Cascade, Crystal and Mosaic hops were added to the beer through Ferment’s cool pool technique, providing a grapefruit citrus bouquet to this 6.5% ABV, golden-colored West Coast IPA, without introducing a lot of bitterness.

Helles Bock makes up the Bottom Ferment portion of the release. At 6.9% ABV the lager carries some weight, and has a rich malt character to back it up. German Tettnanger hops are subtle, balancing the beer with just a touch of bitterness. A style synonymous with Maibock and normally released in the Spring, Ferment found the malt-forward beer to be suitable for the Pacific Northwest’s autumn evenings.

“Both of these beers were a lot of fun to make and they’re exactly what I’d like to be drinking right now as the leaves turn colors and the evenings get crisp and cold,” said Dan Peterson, brewmaster at Ferment Brewing Co. “The Helles Bock is a big beer that truly feels like autumn and could be cellared in the can over the winter months. Bright West is a beer that uses a lot of the hops in our flagship IPA but showcases them completely differently. Everyone wanted us to brew it again, so we made it happen!”

Both beers are available now for a limited time in 16 oz 4-packs and on draft and are available at Ferment’s restaurant and taproom in Hood River. Cans are also available at specialty beer and grocery stores throughout Oregon. Only 250 cases of each were produced.

About Ferment Brewing Co.
Ferment Brewing Co. opened in 2018 as a 20-barrel brewery and tasting room in Hood River, Oregon. Born out of an appreciation for the art of fermentation, the company prides itself in providing a modern brewery and tasting room experience that fuses traditional farmhouse techniques with a forward-thinking scientific approach. Ferment offers a unique family of beers and kombuchas that tap the wild terrain of the Columbia River Gorge for inspiration.

###