Field to Ferment: Centennial + Simcoe
Fremont Brewing Company

Best in class. It’s a supremely well-done beer. Kind of a masterpiece. The base grain bill carries the fresh wet hops incredibly. Centennial and Simcoe. An OG hop lovers’ dream. LUPULIN. Beautiful job building this beer. They made a very special one here. Wow.

 

16oz can of the 2025 vintage, canned on September 15, 2025 - 5 days ago(!). This year's version was brewed with fresh Centennial and Simcoe hops.

Clear, golden shade of amber. Big, sudsy bone-white head. Lots of lace.

Floral, piney, and citrusy hop nose.

Mildly citrusy up front, then tastes of fresh melon. Fadeout is piney and surprisingly crisp and dry.

Medium bodied, with a crisp, almost lager like mouth feel.

A nice FH pale ale, which I'm drinking while watching the Apple Cup. Go Dawgs!

Picked up a single pint can. Date on can: 09/18/24. Probably a month late for the true experience. According to the brewery, this rendition features Strata hops, which I am not very familiar with.

Pours a slightly hazy golden in color with a hint of copper and a half finger of frothy white foam on top. Head retention is decent, though it does subside to a thin layer of foam over time. A good amount of lacing on the glass as you drink. Carbonation looks average, maybe slightly above, with a lot of bubbles rising up. Looking on point!

Aroma is fresh and earthy with a lot of tropical fruitiness, melon, citrus, grass and pine. There's a bit of honey sweetness in there, too. Doesn't seem like this will be overly balanced, but it does smell quite good.

Taste follows the nose well, although the malts do come through a bit more in the flavor; cracker/biscuit and butter. Getting citrus and guava up front with some floral spice as it sits on the tongue and pine more towards the swallow. Finishes with a lingering grapefruit pith, lemon and pine bitterness. I'd expect a bit more balance from a pale ale. This drinks like an IPA.

This one is medium bodied with moderate carbonation that drinks smooth and creamy. I was worried it might be a bit too carbonated from me off the pour, but it's actually quite nice.

This is good stuff. Not the best fresh hop ale I've had, but it does nicely showcase Strata hops. As mentioned in the tasting notes, I'm not sure why this is classified as a pale ale and not an IPA; it has the ABV and the hop profile of an IPA. I wouldn't hesitate to drink this one again, though I don't see myself seeking it out often.

Clear yellow with a sticky large white head. Good retention, great lacing.

Aroma is slightly stanky, grapefruit sourness, vinegar, lemon, funk.

Taste is dominated by lemon and grapefruit, touch of pineapple, crisp crackery malt, funk and sourness, hay, grass. Crisp clean finish.

Nice body, well carbonated, smooth and slick.

22 oz can into a pint glass

Straw-colored brew, moderate, wispy suds. Grassy nose, floral and pungent. Flavors yield notes of lemon pepper, citrus pith, earth. Mild malt character ushers in a short, crisp finish.

Refreshing little brew but thought it was a bit one-dimensional toward the end of the pint.

 

Every fresh hop season, I look forward to whatever cans my friends in Washington remember to send me. This is one of the standards (along with Cowiche Canyon).

Perfect looking IPA - colder, clear, light effervescence and a thin lively head.

Aroma is citrus, nothing specific to a particular fruit, earthy and light pine.

Taste is a kiss of citrus followed by a faint balance of malt to anchor the proceedings. Tough of bitterness.

A gold standard.

 

 

2023-09-30
16oz can served in a curvy Fremont glass. Can is dated 09/13/2023. Bought it at Chuck's Hop Shop Seward Park a couple hours ago. I'm a bit surprised to see I haven't reviewed this, as I think I've had it each year it's been available. But, it has gone through several permutations.

Pours clear golden with a big, almost two finger head, which settles slowly into a clumpy, cottony layer much thicker along the edges than the center. Carbonation is there and visible, but fairly modest. Smell is hop resin, honeysuckle, and vegetation. Gorgeous.

Taste is along the same lines, with a bready, biscuity center. Lots of resin, light lemon zest.

Mouthfeel is light, dry, with a resinous, sticky coating. Overall...this is not as good as I remember from previous years, but it is still very good -- always a favorite.

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2024-09-27
16oz can, packaged 09-18-24. Got it at a PCC this year. It's nice, think I'd describe it pretty similarly to what I wrote last year.

2023 canned version. Fresh Citra & Simcoe?

What a beautiful nose with lovely, bright Citra notes, dank yet citrusy with mild diesel and green grape notes. The nose just grows in depth as this warms up, rather stupendous. The palate opens dark, fruity, bright with pine, citrus, peel, zest, pith and an all-round freh Citra character, the dankness that is only present on the freshest of FH. Minimal malt character, allowing focus to be on the hops, with fruity hop sweetness pairing nicely with the dankness. Lovely.

Freemont Field to Ferment 2022

No hop bill listed. Is this usual? I had specific hop variants in years past. Still delicious, regardless.

Even at three weeks of age, there’s still a green grassy FH character on the nose. The sip follows, with a sticky sweetness on the end. Drinks all too easily.

 

This is copied from my Untapped, with slight edits.

Slightly murky golden pour with a white head. There was decent retention, and some lacing on the glass.
Aroma is slightly dank, earthy, grassy, with hints of melon sweetness.
Taste - a hint of a bitterness starts this off. The melon then comes into play. with a turn to grassy and earthy. I did not get a dank flavor in this beer. There's also a hint of pine.
The body is quite full and smooth.
This is a delicious fresh hop beer.

Can poured into a Mountain Rambler Brewery pint glass

A: Pours golden yellow amber with a frothy off white head that settles to a light layer and leaves a little nice lacing.

S: Dank, grassy, earthy, herbal, pine, citrus zest and pith, faint fruity hints, and lightly toasted bready malt.

T: Slightly dank green earthy grassy herbal notes, resinous pine, big floral notes, citrus, grapefruit and lemon, soft underlying fruit, apricot, peach, melon, and papaya, a bit woodsy, and all held together with slightly toasty bready malt.

M: Medium body, moderate carbonation, kinda sticky.

O: Delivers big time on that green wet hop goodness. Definitely feels like you chewing on cones you bit right off the bine. Overall flavor wise it's not my favorite wet hop beer I've had this year, but if you want to get into the harvest spirit this will definitely do the job.

Received from woemad in an LIF associated with NBW BIF #16.
Poured translucent amber with a nearly white head that dissipated slowly and left regular lacing.
The aroma was piney and floral and earthy.
The taste followed, the piney bitter definitely leads the way but doesn’t overwhelm the other flavors. Rounding out the taste is malts more earthy than bready and what I am thinking are the yeasts and the floral touches.
The feel was not as viscous as the translucent appearance led me to think. Very easy drinking.
Really enjoyed my second ever Fresh Hop beer, thanks Fred!

 

Nice fresh/wet hop APA (4-pack from Cask)

Begins with a complex citrus and pine resin wave of full flavor, underpinned by a fresh, grassy, earthy hop base - a pleasant malt element isn’t shy either, coming to the fore, resulting in a balanced, complex, yet very approachable APA. Simply delightful, and everything you could want from this fresh hop season. Highly recommended.

Poured from a 1 Pint can. Canned on 09/09/2022.
A very piney with the hops a very nice pour and a somewhat weak nose.
A very dry but nice hop finish.