Nightlife: Whole lotta HOPS for beer festival

When the Muddy Pig hosted its first Belgian Beer Festival last September, owner Mark van Wie wasn't prepared for the glut of beer lovers who came crashing through his doors.

"I was shocked," Van Wie said. "I bought all this beer and wondered if anybody would even show up."

Show up they did. Van Wie filled his draft lines -- 43 in all(!) -- with a cornucopia of Belgian styles. The St. Paul pub sold more than 7,000 5-ounce glasses of beer that weekend.

Five months later, he has a new beer extravaganza: The Festival of Hops. This time Van Wie will shift away from Belgians and focus his beer goggles on hoppy beers, famous for their pungent, beautifully bitter taste. Hopped-up beers are the style du jour among beer enthusiasts. Once again he's partnering with beer distributor Corey Shovein to pack 40-plus tap lines with nothing but hoppy beer.

This festival is perfect for the Twin Cities beer scene, which loves locally made craft brews such as Summit Extra Pale Ale, Surly Furious and Bell's Two Hearted Ale (from Michigan).

"This is die-hard hop land," Shovein said. "Summit has really conditioned the market to enjoy hop-forward beers."

Hops are the female flower cone on a hop plant, which sort of looks like a marijuana plant. In beer, the bitterness of hops is used to balance the sweetness of the malt. But before craft brewers were using hops to amp up the flavors, the leaves had a more practical use. The creation of today's most popular hops style -- the Indian Pale Ale, or IPA -- can be traced back centuries to when the British empire was conquering lands half a world away. Brewers found that hops -- a natural preservative -- could keep their beer from spoiling during the long ocean voyage to India. It tasted good, too.

In this country, hoppy beer began its renaissance during the microbrew boom of the 1980s. That's when Van Wie had his first taste. (It was a Redhook beer in Seattle.) "I remember saying 'Whoo ya!' " he said. "And that's what got me into the beer business."

Too much hops?

For this weekend's festival, Van Wie has purchased 60 kegs of hop beer from all around the country. But even "hopheads" have to admit: There is a limit to hoppiness. "It is possible to put too much hops in a beer," Van Wie said. "Too much hops can fry your taste buds."

That hasn't prevented some acts of extreme brewing. You'll often see hop beers scored on an IBU scale (short for International Bitterness Units). The hoppiest beers max out around 100 IBUs and come with funny names like Hop Monster, Hop Wallop and even Hop Whore.

Van Wie said the human palette can't really tell the difference once IBUs reach 100. That's not stopping him from bringing in a beer called Unearthly, by New York's Southern Tier. It supposedly clocks in at 153 IBUs.

That might sound scary if you're used to drinking Budweiser and Miller Light. "I think people are afraid of hops," Van Wie said. "But there's a whole range. People just have to try them."

The festival is set up for beer drinkers to do just that. Like the Belgian Beer fest, the bar will be serving 5-ounce pours at $3 a pop, or 3 pours for $8.

Last year the future for a festival like this one looked grim. A worldwide hops shortage -- due to bad weather in Europe and farmers switching to corn (to make ethanol) -- meant trouble for craft brewers. While prices have increased, Van Wie thinks the industry will level off. "It seems like the worst is over," he said.

Van Wie has plenty to be optimistic about. When he opened the Muddy Pig in 2002 he only had seven draft lines. Today he has 40-plus. And this weekend they're all filled with hops.

"There's just so many great beers, and I want to serve them all," he said.

thorgen@startribune.com • 612-673-7909