(OR) Google this beer! Hopworks Urban Brewery releases Gigabit IPA 3/2

Portland, OR - Every once in a while we find something so odd that we have to mention it (no not Sink the Bismarck, that was last month). Portland, has for a couple of decades, has proven itself the center of Beervana, between the 45+ breweries, the numerous large scale festivals and of course the multitude of bars with those said Oregon breweries’ beers on draft.

But then this story came to our attention, regarding yet another example of what cities will do to attract Google’s thumb’s up for the Google Fiber for Communities. Wait, what is Google Fiber for Communities? It’s funny you should ask. 

We're planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We'll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.
Our goal is to experiment with new ways to help make Internet access better and faster for everyone – source, Google

So what does this have to do with Portland other than they might get some really fast file downloads? In one two words beer and PDXFiber.

Started back early this month, fellow writer Teresa Boze, recruited Taplister, Beer and Booze and a few others, to start a local project to persuade Google to pick PDX. With a primary of goal of producing a beer, from a brewery that represented self-sustainability, Taplister CBO Kerry Finsand assembled the list. At the top and eventually chosen, was Hopworks Urban. If you have ever visited their brewpub, you wouldn’t disagree with the choice. 

At the behest of PDXFiber A meeting was held with Hopworks and with owner / head brewer Christian Ettinger & brewer Ben Love.

What is PDXFiber?

A small group of people have banded together to lobby Google to consider Portland, Oregon as the perfect spot to roll out their Google Fiber for Communities experiment. Google is planning to design and build one of the fastest experimental broadband networks in the world, delivering over 1 gigabit per second fiber-to-the-home connetions at a competative price for up to 500,000 homes. –source, PDXFiber

Come this Friday you are invited to visit The Green Dragon Pub Beer and Blog writer Justin Kistner, as they host the public release of the beer. Also in attendance at the event will be the Hopworks Bike Bar and some additional staff from the HUB pub.

April 2nd, 2010 6:00 PM *start time an approximation
Gigabit India Pale Ale Release Night, The Green Dragon Pub
928 Southeast 9th Avenue, Portland, OR 97214 (503) 517-0660‎

About Gigabit India Pale Ale

14 Plato   5.9% ABV  75 IBU
Organic Malts: Pilsner, Munich 32L, C15, C40, C60
Hops: Summit, Simcoe, Rainier, Palisade, Magnum *special Thanks to New School for doing the leg work.

For those of you curious about the label, the logo was the brainchild of Bram Pitoyo, you might check his stuff out.

Related

http://seattlebeernews.com/?p=2139
http://blog.taplister.com/2010/03/30/google-beer-gigabit-ipa-debuts-in-portland-oregon/

Special Thanks to New School for turning us onto this story. Check them out sometime.

Cheers