Portland bar and brewery launch West Coast IPA naming contest
PLS on Sixth and Recluse Beer Works have already closed name submissions for a new 6.5% West Coast IPA, and the beer’s April 23 reveal comes with a serious prize package.
The chance to name a new West Coast IPA from PLS on Sixth and Recluse Beer Works has closed, but the beer itself is still waiting for its debut. The collaboration will be unveiled at a free April 23 launch party in The Colosseum at The Hotel Zags, where the winner will be announced and guests 21 and older can try the beer first while supplies last.
The beer is built like a modern West Coast IPA should be built: pale gold, 6.5% ABV, and tilted toward tropical hop character without losing the firm bitterness drinkers expect. PLS and Recluse describe it with notes of starfruit, lime and mango, balanced by malt and moderately high bitterness. The hop bill, led by Mosaic, Idaho 7 and New Zealand Cascade, points to the fruit-meets-resin profile that has kept West Coast IPA in steady demand even as the style has gone through its own revival cycle.
Recluse Beer Works makes this partnership worth a closer look. The Washougal brewery, at 4035 N Grant St., Suite 102, in the Port of Camas-Washougal, describes itself as a lager-focused brewery and leans into the line “beer flavored beer for people who like beer.” That no-nonsense identity fits a hop-forward release better than a lot of flashier brewery crossovers do, especially since Recluse’s current beer list already includes multiple West Coast IPA offerings, including a 6.5% version. This is not a brewery reaching outside its lane for a novelty collab. It is a brewery that knows exactly what a clean, bitter IPA should taste like.
General Manager Daryn Cyrus said the project is meant to celebrate Portland’s creativity and craft culture, and the setup backs that up. PLS on Sixth sits on the TriMet transit mall in downtown Portland, so the launch has an easy public-facing footprint instead of feeling like a private industry party. The grand prize tied to the contest also gives the whole thing more weight than a typical one-off naming game: the winner gets the beer name selected, merch, free beer at PLS for one year, one beer per visit, a $100 PLS gift card, and one free night stay per quarter at The Hotel Zags, subject to availability.
The launch party runs from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on April 23, with restaurant specials, samplings, and a live DJ. For a local release, that is the right kind of finish line: a named beer, a clear deadline, and a West Coast IPA that should pour exactly the way this market likes it.
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