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A Slapshot of Hops
EUGENE BREWERY IS THE BEER OF CHOICE FOR NEW NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE TEAM SEATTLE KRAKEN
By Henry Houston
W
hen the puck drops for the 2021-22
National Hockey League season,
Eugene-based Hop Valley will
have its craft beer in Seattle’s
Climate Pledge Arena conces-
sion stands.
On March 10, the Seattle
Kraken announced Hop Valley as the exclusive craft
beer for the arena. The hockey team, whose inaugural
professional season begins October, says the brewery
fits with their climate-friendly mission and expanding
the Kraken’s exposure throughout the Pacific Northwest.
For Hop Valley, the partnership is another notch on the
belt of the beer’s sports venue’s list and a way to grow its
brand in Seattle. The partnership comes months
after the brewery’s parent company, Molson
Coors, announced a plan to distribute
throughout North America.
“Through this partnership we’ll be
able to engage with the Seattle community
more, in the arena, through events,
concerts,” says Hop Valley Director of
Marketing Megan McKenna. “We want to
share our beer, celebrate with our beer,
get involved, but we also want to support
the Seattle community through it.”
Hop Valley’s Kraken beer will include
the brewery’s trademarked Cryo Hops, a
process that includes cryogenics and low
temperatures to preserve flavors. And the
hops are sourced from the Washington
company Yakima Chief Hops, McKenna
says. “Using the hops from the state will
be a nice layer to the storytelling of this
slant
• We're sorry to see
the Ashland Tidings
(formerly the Daily
Tidings) disappear
and merge with a renamed Medford Mail-
Tribune. The papers’ ownership, Rosebud
Media, announced there will be one newspaper
— The Mail Tribune with two editions, one for the
Medford area and the other for Ashland and
nearby communities. It will only print four days
a week. Retired Eugene Weekly Editor Ted Taylor
was an editor at the Tidings when it was a fine
paper in Ashland before he eventually came to
Eugene and EW for his illustrious 17-year run.
He reminds us that the Tidings is one of the
oldest daily newspapers in Oregon.
• We are delighted to announce (and brag)
that Black Girl from Eugene podcaster and
columnist Ayisha Elliott won second place for
her Eugene Weekly column in the Association
of Alternative Newsmedia national contest.
Former EW intern Donald Morrison took second
for his longform news article about the sexual
exploitation of a University of Oregon student,
“Begin Modeling.” The AAN contest is highly
competitive, and alternative newsweeklies have
launched the careers of Ta-Nehisi Coates, David
E U G E N E W E E K LY . C O M
canned package.”
The Kraken’s venue is called the Climate Pledge
Arena after a net zero carbon campaign led by Amazon
and advocacy group Global Optimism. To live up to the
name, Anderson says the team is committed to sourcing
75 percent of its food and beverage from within 300
miles of the arena.
Although Seattle is around 280 miles from Eugene,
Hop Valley will make the beer at its Whiteaker brewery,
McKenna says, and the company isn’t planning to establish
a new facility in Washington. One way the brewery will
meet the demand of hockey fans, who are notorious for
beer drinking, is through its Hop Box, she says. That’s a
portable, repurposed shipping container, branded with
Hop Valley’s colors and logo. “They really present
a unique opportunity for us where we don’t
need a brick and mortar space. We have
a portable pub,” she says. “We plan to
activate one in Seattle, potentially in
the Kraken fan zone.”
In 2018, the NHL Board of Governors
approved the addition of the Seattle
Kraken to the league, making it the only
U.S. Pacific Northwest professional hockey
team. Before the Kraken, the most northern
U.S. West Coast professional team was the
San Jose Sharks; the Vancouver Canucks
are just across the border.
“The Seattle Kraken represent much
more than just Seattle,” Kraken’s Corporate
Communications Manager De’Aira Anderson
says via email. The Kraken’s media tentacles
spread to Alaska, Washington, Idaho and
Oregon, she adds. “It is our goal to create a
Carr, Susan Orlean and Matt Groening, to name
only a few.
• One more terrific topic comes from the
City Club of Eugene: “Prescription: Nature.
Can Time in the Great Outdoors Save Your
Life?” The Zoom taping will be 1 pm July 27.
Speakers are Jared Hanley, NatureQuant; Dr.
Christopher Minso, University of Oregon Human
Physiology; and Katie Lynch, UO Environmental
Leadership Program. This program airs on the
City Club Facebook and YouTube pages starting
at noon on Friday, July 30.
• Are rabbits coming out of
somebody’s hat? Suddenly they
are everywhere. We had a report
from a hiker on Mount Pisgah
that he saw a dozen. We also
watched a pack of little boys
chase one fast rabbit around
the edges of a soccer match
at Civic Park. Perhaps they’re
just breeding like rabbits.
You might be seeing a native
Oregon brush rabbit, a black-tailed
jackrabbit or a larger introduced
Eastern cottontail. There have
been recent reports of rabbit
love affair with fans all throughout the Pacific Northwest,
and one of the ways we will do this is by offering our
patrons their favorite regional food and beverage options
at Climate Pledge Arena.”
Hop Valley is creating a special 19.2 ounce tall boy, only
available in Washington state due to restrictions set by
the NHL, McKenna says. The brewery is keeping quiet
on the details of the beer for now, but she says the can
will feature the tentacles of the legendary sea monster
and is planned for release in September, before the NHL
season begins. Climate Pledge Arena will also have the
brewery’s Bubble Stash IPA at concession stands.
Months before the Kraken announced Hop Valley would
be sold at the arena for the 2021-22 season, Molson Coors
said in a Dec. 2, 2020, press release that it would begin
distributing the beer nationally, expecting the brewery to
compete against other craft breweries, such as Lagunitas,
Sierra Nevada and Elysian. Molson Coors acquired Hop
Valley in 2016, and the Kraken beer exclusivity deal
includes Coors Light.
The team didn’t comment on how long the agreement
with Hop Valley is or how much Hop Valley or Molson
Coors are paying for the partnership.
The deal with the Kraken isn’t the first craft beer deal
that Hop Valley has made with a sports team. It’s also
the official craft beer of the Oregon Ducks football team,
McKenna says, and is sold at NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders
games, as well as MLB’s Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles
Angels, San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies.
“We’re all sports fans,” McKenna says about Hop
Valley’s staff. “I think sports and craft [beers] are a
natural partnership, so hockey is the newest sport that
we’re falling in love with out here.” ■
hemorrhagic disease in Oregon, which can kill
them quickly. It does not affect humans but
can sicken your pet rabbits. Let us know your
sightings — and don’t let your own kids chase
the bunnies and scare them. Leave wildlife alone,
including cute little Peter Rabbit.
• Were you at the Lane County Fair, heard
the gunshots and fled in fear for your life? Did
you see the social media and news reports and
stress out about loved ones at the fair? Luckily,
it was not an active shooter; instead, a weapon
went off as security took down the teen holding
the gun. But it’s a terrifying reminder — yet
again — of the need for gun control.
• Just when we thought we were
overcoming COVID-19, it sucked us back in.
The stark reminders that we’re still in
the midst of a pandemic are all
around us, from the empty
stands at the Olympics in
Tokyo to the staggering
high COVID-19 cases
reported by Oregon
Health Authority. So
please wear your mask
— and get vaccinated
already.
J U LY
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