Pueblo Vida Brewing Company has released Logistics for the sixth year in a row, a 6.5% Fresh Hop Hazy IPA brewed in collaboration with Westwood Farms and Indie Hops. The beer features whole-cone Strata® hops grown in Oregon by Westwood Farms for Indie Hops, along with regeneratively grown malt from Proximity Malt.
Logistics Fresh Hop Hazy IPA is aptly named. It depends on precise timing and coordination during the short window when hops can be brewed fresh from harvest. As soon as the Strata® cones are harvested and bagged up in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, they move quickly from field to brewery. Hops harvested at 5 a.m. were on a plane to Arizona at 8 a.m. the same day. They arrived in the afternoon and the brewing process began before the day was out. Pueblo Vida’s finished beer offers aromas of ripe peach, a hint of dankness and the fresh, vegetal aroma of a hop field.
“Fresh-hop beer only happens when growers and brewers work in step with the crop,” said Linette Antillon, co-owner at Pueblo Vida. “Logistics IPA starts with freshly harvested, Oregon-grown Strata® at its most vivid, and the timing lets us capture a character you just can’t recreate later in the year. It is peachy, green, a little dank and unmistakably fresh.”
For Westwood Farms, the collaboration combines their farming expertise with expertise of the developers of the renowned Strata® hop. The farm grows hops without tilling and uses cover crops and low-disturbance tools that help protect soil structure and foster biodiversity. Cloud-connected irrigation technology helps the team match water use to field conditions. Those practices are part of a long-term regenerative approach designed to improve the function and resilience of the land while growing hops that meet craft brewers’ high standards for quality and character.
“Regenerative farming begins long before the growing season begins, with decisions we make about the soil and farm resources,” said Andy Livesay, farm manager at Westwood Farms. “We grow these hops without tilling, use cover crops and low-disturbance tools, and manage water closely. Pueblo Vida is asking the same kind of question in the brewery that we are in the field: how do we make something excellent while taking better care of the resources behind it?”
Portland, Oregon-based Indie Hops seeks to reduce the overall environmental impact of hop growing by releasing new hop cultivars that not only excite consumer palates, but are also easier on the environment. The hop breeder for their program, Dr. Shaun Townsend, is based at Oregon State University and breeds thousands of new genotypes for Indie Hops each year.
“The reason I went into agricultural research is because I wanted to lower our environmental footprint, and plant breeding is an ideal way to do that,” stated Dr. Townsend.
That focus has paid off. “We consistently hear from our growers that Strata® is a hop that has more disease and pest resistance with a vigorous growth habit that requires fewer chemical inputs on the farm,” commented Indie Hops CEO Jim Solberg.
This shared concern throughout the process is what makes the partnership a natural fit. Pueblo Vida monitors brewery water use daily, sorts its recycling by material, sends spent grain to a local family farm and prioritizes responsibly sourced domestic ingredients. In Logistics Hazy IPA, the recipe itself reflects those big-picture decisions. It’s the ideal combination of regeneratively grown hops and malt crafted into beer by a brewery with sustainable practices at its heart.
Oregon-based Indie Hops developed Strata® through its breeding partnership with Oregon State University and works closely with growers to manage quality, harvest timing and supply. Westwood Farms joined that grower network with a shared focus on Oregon terroir, regenerative agriculture and hop quality.
Logistics Fresh Hop Hazy IPA is releasing during the week of Sept. 14. It is available primarily in Tucson, with limited availability in Phoenix.
