Imperial Fresh Hop Notion
Crooked Fence Brewing

Taster at brewery. Not too much bigger than its base IPA (Hop Notion). Piney, resinous, viscous taste, aroma is also piney. Fresh hops in March? Something off here

a weird time of year to have a fresh hop beer on tap, but they arent the only ones in town, i wonder whats up with that?! in any event, this is a stronger version of their house ipa, done with fresh hops, which i may have heard were grown here in idaho. for some reason it seems to have a little more color than the regular hop notion, and a similar frothy white head. the aroma here is muted to me, like either the beer or the hops themselves arent all that fresh, which again would make sense given its spring now, not fall when the hops are actually fresh, less vibrant than the normal version to me, but with an obvious greenness at the same time, not quite harsh or anything, but big for the sake of it it seems. the flavor is about the same, muted hop notes with pine and green pepper essence, some juniper and some spicy cascade type hops too, but the freshness isnt there for me, and the oily feel i often get from wet hops isnt here either, it just kind of tastes like a strong pale ale, which i dont think was the goal, and having the regular hop notion right after it, there really is no comparison, at least at this stage of its life. this lacks the hop forwardness of flavor that the original has, and the extra malt seems to muddle the fresh hops a little bit. i would have liked to try this fresher, they probably shouldnt still be serving it, if its leftover from the harvest time, but its not bad, just unexciting and a bad example of what fresh hop beer can be. meh.