Isaac and Taylor Hanson join Tom Gilbert in trying a bottle of Boulevard Brewing Co. Smokestack Series Saison Brett 2014. TOM GILBERT/Tulsa World
The Hanson brothers and I have a lot in common. Well at least about beer and photography.
I have no musical talent and don’t have any screaming fans though. They are all passionate about their music and craft beer. Taylor Hanson is also passionate about photography and now documents his travels with his camera. At an early age, the brothers traveled extensively. This opens up your world and helps you understand other ways of thinking. They also all came back to Oklahoma.
Oklahoma is really going through a revolution when it comes to craft beer. The United States has never had as many breweries in its history and Oklahoma’s craft beer community is growing, too.
The Hanson brothers are starting a music and beer festival that it wants to grow too.
They thought bringing those things together would be a logical step. So Hop Jam was created. They wanted to create an event that invited people share these two worlds – enjoying great craft beer and great music.
“A lot of people don’t know how much great beer there is in Oklahoma, said Taylor Hanson. “It is really cool to go to a bar and look at the taps and see all the beer tap handles of beer that is produced in Oklahoma.
“We want to see the whole craft beer community grow.”
Isaac Hanson didn’t like beer or at least he didn’t know he liked beer. He was more of a “bourbon man,” he said.
“It is a growing process, you can’t just like beer. You have to start somewhere and learn the different flavors. I preferred to drink bourbon and did not like beer. It was really Boulevard Wheat that got me going.
“I then started with Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and really like Mustang’s Washita Wheat also Marshall’s Atlas and COOP’s DNR and F5 are some other great beers to drink,” said Isaac Hanson. “This, of course, would be in addition to MMMHops.
“MMMhops is our flagship beer that was released last year. It is a welcome to craft beer type of pale ale.
“It has a some really nice malty signatures to it, but it still has some very bright hop notes. It allows for people not familiar with a full bodied, more full flavored craft type beer to start to understand what they have been missing,” said Isaac.
“I have had people come up to me saying it was the hoppiest beer I have had and others say it wasn’t as hoppy as I though it would be. That for me is good. That means we are doing our jobs.”
The Hanson Brother Brewery is working on a farmhouse ale for the festival.
“It’s going to have a classic Saison spice with a little pepper and hoppy at the end so it will have some bitterness from the hops,” said Taylor. “This is a beer for people really into the traditional styles and stuff that is less common, something that is really different.”
It will be a limited release and will go fast.
“The goal with our special festival beer is to capture the essence of a classic Farmouse Ale, with a subtle hoppy presence,” they said in an email Friday.
“The Hop Jam is an invitation to craft beer and is also right at the start of summer, so we wanted a beer that was easy to drink and refreshing, but also diverse in it’s flavor palate.
“We’ve built the recipe around a light barley malt base, with two row and melanoiden, and rye malt for a bit of spice. The farmhouse yeast colors the overall flavor of the beer, giving it a light smokiness and a citrus fragrance.
“Like all the brews specially made for The Hop Jam, this is a fun one-off beer that we hope people will love, but you have to get there right at the start of the fest cause it won’t last long!”
The Hanson brothers have a plan to launch more limited runs a couple of times a year. They are going to try out different things to see what people respond to. They plan to release these beers in the bomber size 750ml.
“It will be fun to get the chance to experiment with a lot of different things. We really do love the complexity and diversity that exits within beer,” said Isaac.