Hop Operative
Fort George Brewery + Public House

On tap at Bailey's Taproom in Portland.

Pours a clear amber with a solid off white head and some decent lacing.

Strong aroma of citrus hops with some malt sweetness.

Taste is almost all hops with less of the malt presence than I might have hoped for. Nice, but I would have liked some more balance.

Mouthfeel is decent. Drinkability is fine with moderate ABV and decent taste.

I guess this is a fresh hop or dry hopped Oktoberfest based on the categorization here. I like my hops but this was a bit of an odd one.

HV

My Brother-In-Law picked up a growler of this on the way to Long Beach, WA. Yo bro!

Word was that this is the employee Favorite!

The brew has a good appearance with a dark amber hue and retained two fingers of head - from the growler at that, of fine white head. Aroma is fair, hoppy and slightly sweet. Taste has a good balance of hops and malts although more bittering from the hops is apparent. This beer has a nice and dry finish. The body is medium to light with a fair degree of carbonation. Overall this is a fine beer with a high degree of drinkability.

Probably should have asked exactly what style the brewery was going for, though I believe it's their fall marzen style beer. However, it's very much on the hoppy side, and I would guess is dry hopped. I tended to think of it as a marzen IPA.

The beer pours the expected orange amber color with good head retention and lacing. There is considerable hoppy citrus in the nose, but with enough sweet malt to not make me think this an IPA. However, on the palate this beer is all IPA, albeit with enough sweet malt to make me think of a hoppy oktoberfest beer. The beer is medium bodied at most, and alcohol seems pretty low (around 6% would be my guess). The beer is pretty drinkable, and I enjoyed it more and more as time went by.

While nothing spectacular, this was nice enough. Good beer.