At its core Stata is an IPA/Session-IPA/Pale Ale hop with many layers of different fruit flavors, dried and fresh, anchored with a dried chili-cannabis-funk. Yeah take that in. The grower, Indie Hops, says Strata does not have any diesel, machine oil, or catty ‘baggage’. Since we are not huge on machine oil in our beer, that is a bonus. Late hot side additions bring out layers of rounded-tropical plus bright-fresh fruit flavors; dry hopping yields more grapefruit and cannabis. We think the tropical fruit that we all kind of love, along with other interesting complexities, is what makes this hop shine.

We also dig that this amazing hop is coming out of Oregon from a hop company appropriately named Indie Hops. When hops were in short supply some hop growers in Yakima, the old school hop epicenter, shunned us. They would only sell direct to breweries or in their own packaging where they could make full markup. We met Indie Hop Growers 10 years ago and these guys are laid back, super cool, and always supported MoreBeer! Indie started a hop breeding program with Oregon State to develop killer new aroma hops outside of Yakima and Strata is their first home run. So perhaps we could be biased but we think the hops smells for itself. Leave a review and let us know what you think.