'The Beast'™ (OSU 541.147) is a hybrid hazelnut from a 1990 cross made at Oregon State University by Shawn Mehlenbacher and Dave Smith between NY 616 (Corylus americana x C. avellana) and the OSU selection 226.118. It was tested at Rutgers and released in 2020 by the Hybrid Hazelnut Consortium. It carries an Eastern Filbert Blight resistance gene from the American hazelnut 'Rush', different from the 'Gasaway' gene, and trees planted in 2001 at a heavy-EFB site in New Jersey have stayed blight free. A vigorous, upright tree with fewer suckers than most, producing high and consistent yields of small nuts with a chestnut-brown shell that mostly drop free of the husk in the second half of September. Kernels are small. It is especially valued as a pollinizer, with abundant, cold-hardy catkins (S-alleles 8 and 23, S8 expressed in pollen), and is rated for zone 5.