Bridgeport is Oregon’s oldest brewery, beginning as Columbia River Brewery in 1984 (Widmer Brothers opened the same year). Back then, they brewed their flagship Bridgeport Ale, which inspired the brewery’s name change in ’96. Fast forward to 2014, and you’ve got a tenured brewery that’s celebrating its 30th birthday. That’s no small feat, and Bridgeport has a portfolio of quality beers brewed over those years that they can be proud of (I’m looking at you Hop Czar).
To help celebrate three decades of great beer, Bridgeport has released a new IPA, the Aussie Salute, which incorporates Oregon-grown hop varieties and hops grown “down under.” Cue Men At Work. The beer is the second installment of a three-part series built to honor Bridgeport’s history in Oregon, and is a collaboration with brewmaster Phil Sexton, who created Bridgeport’s original IPA but now lives in Australia.
Aussie Salute has a great nose, like freshly cut grass and lemonade, but also comes off as a bit spicy. Imagine a really hot mom (or dad) mowing the grass while her kid sells lemonade—that’s what this beer smells like. God, I love the suburbs.
Anyway, the beer pours cloudy orange with a subtle head and has a really crisp mouthfeel, with clean, strong notes of grapefruit and grass. There’s almost no sweetness here and the bitter notes linger long after the sip has vanished. It’s not an overly hopped beer (it only registers 55 IBUs), but the lack of sweetness emphasizes those bitter notes.
I paired the beer with a burger and some shrimp, which I “threw on the barbie,” while listening to Men At Work and trying to imagine what a love child between Nicole Kidman and Crocodile Dundee would look like. Because, you know, Australia.
Brewery: Bridgeport Brewing Company
City: Portland, Oregon
Style: IPA
ABV: 5.8%
Availability: Limited through summer