Strata Fresh Hop
Holy Mountain Brewing Company

Appearance: A buoyant bubble show produces a three finger head over the cloudy goldenstraw liquid; excellent retention and splotchy lacing

Smell: Really bright and tropical with pineapple, mango and passionfruit tones

Taste: Juicy tropical flavors forward with pineapple and mango sprinkled with honey and melon tones; passionfruit bitterness develops, through the middle to balance out the sweeter elements; good bitterness lingering into the finish

Mouthfeel: Medium body with moderate to high carbonation

Overall: Really enjoying this NE IPA; great use of a single hop variety that I haven't seen around all that often

16oz can courtesy of Kemoarps.

Hazy, lemon-amber color, with a thick, sudsy head. Lots of lace.

Bright, juicy, tropical fruit-like hop aroma.

Like in the nose, bright, tropical fruit like flavor dominant, with a bitter, pithy taste on the back end. Low intensity, crackery malt backbone.

Oily, resiny mouthfeel.

I've not been impressed by Strata hops by themselves in the past, but I'm digging this. Good stuff!

Attractive beer, but there's a fair amount of sediment that accumulates on the bottom. Excellent head production, retention, and lacing.

Lovely green and fresh nose, along with a nice strong crackery pale malt base. Lemon, resin, peach, mango, and grapefruit.

Similar on the palate: it's resinous, but amazingly smooth with a hint of sweetness. Shocking balance, not just for a modern IPA, but for a fresh hop IPA. Flavor follows the nose, along with a hint of dankness. Oily and resinous finish.

This is a remarkably drinkable and full-flavored fresh hop IPA - one of the best I've had in a while, and I'm not a huge Strata fan.

on tap at e9 during the zwanze day celebration, neat to break up all the funky stuff with something hoppy and fresh like this, and cool of e9 to bring in something in a style they do so well themselves, very unpretentious, which is part of the appeal here. this is cool beer, part of its appeal for me is the grain base, hazy but only as an aside, its got oats and spelt in it, in addition to a heap of pils malt, more layered, earthy, dynamic, and interesting than many of these, not just pale two row, which i appreciate, and i think its a catalyst for enhancing and extending the hops, because this tastes like a unique strata profile, which is a hop everyone is using now, but the beer isnt samey, and i think the grain is to thank for that. almost has a multigrain lager vibe because its so dry too, but has so much depth. the hops have pineapple and honeydew and juniper notes, oily and with a honey thing going on, not overdosed, and not bitter in the least, i wonder if there is much bittering hops in this at all. palate coating but only for a second, still clean on the finish. guava juiciness, tidy generic citrus, green apple candy, and the grain, balanced and great, high objective quality here. i am a little bit over all the strata hype, need more diversity, but the grain brings out a different side of it here. holy mountain delivers again. i havent had much of their hoppy beer, but this is exciting.

16oz can from snaotheus, no date but labeled SLOP EM UP
L:2.5 large bubble white head fades slow and leaves + lacing deep yellow to orange
N: little malt sweetness and pine floral notes
T: light bitterness , hard to describe but I like I sweet fruit but not that overripe melon I get sometimes with NEIPA
F: medium
Overall really enjoyed this one and showcased some different hop notes

2021-09-10
16oz can served in a stemless angled wineglass. Bottom is stamped SLOP EM UP. I'm pretty sure it was canned yesterday or today, I think it was released today.

Pours a hazy orange-amber with a fairly large head that collapses and leaves some nice thick lacing on the glass. Leaves a thick curvaceous ring and chunks of moderately coarse foam floating about. Smell is a little bit of vegetable resinousness and floral pine, which is nice.

Taste is rich -- lots of grainy sweetness, lots of floral hoppiness. Medium and building bitter finish. It's definitely moving in the direction of tasting like a hop field. Fruits...what do I get that's moderately fruity? Light cantaloupe, maybe? Maybe a bit of tropical fruit like guava or papaya. Something almost candy-like about the combination of clear hops and sweet grains. Candied orange peel maybe? Maybe those orange slice gummy candies?

Mouthfeel is creamy, smooth, airy. This is a good one.

16oz can

Canned about a month and a half ago, not ideal for a fresh hop IPA, but I had one recently and it seemed fine.

Pours a finger of white head into my willi glass, a little soapy, and I can hear it fizzing. Retention is pretty nice so far, a half finger still remains after a few minutes. Initial lacing looks a little lazy, but not bad. Body is slightly cloudy, nearly straw yellow in color, with some orange hues. Huge amount of sediment here, looks like yeast, not hops. A little bit of this a little bit of that, I’m not stoked on the sediment.

Nose is pretty spicy at first, a little zesty, astringent. Once agitated it opens up to a huge passionfruit aroma. Mango as well. Tropical, but not overwhelming, and very direct with its aromas. Extremely smooth and creamy, really works well. I wouldn’t mind some abrasive northwest hop flavors to balance this out, but for what it is, it smells quite nice. Almost desert-like, but not quite.

Flavors of passionfruit just bursts through this beer from beginning to end. Finishes with a little pepper, which is very welcome. The faintest dankness. A little bit of that classic vegetal fresh hop flavor, also welcome. Maybe I’ve found a new favorite hop variety, this works well as a tropical single hop that cuts through the bs of trying to jam a million juicy hops in one beer. Very very nice.

Carbonation is high, and drinks pretty effervescently. Body isn’t thin, but lighter than I would expect. Bitterness is on the lower end, not surprising for the juicy style. Some sweetness that comes and goes, nothing extreme. Carbonation is a little unusual, but overall this is a nice mouthfeel.

This drinks pretty light and sessionable, but I think it works; it still has plenty of flavor.

Appearance turned out ok, lacing didn’t do a whole lot, but something is better than nothing. Sediment did settle after a while, so that helps.

Great flavor, high carbonation, sediment. Overall a pretty killer beer, who cares if there were some abnormalities.

16oz can (no canning date; bottom of can says "Don't do this to El Guapo"; but canned very recently) into a tulip. Pours a hazy lemon yellow w/ a 1-finger white head.

Aroma is bursting with bright tropical fruits: fresh peaches, pineapple, grapefruit. I think I'm gonna like this one.

Taste leads off with an alpha acid attack, leading into strong grapefruit rind. Bright acidity washes over the palate, then finishes clean with a lingering, tingling bitterness. Not dank or resinous, just crisp, clean, and razor sharp. I hate to use the word juicy, but this beer is juicy.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied, balanced. Despite the acidity this is drinkable and refreshing. Or I'm thirsty.

Overall one of the better fresh hop beers I've had so far. I don't know that I've had a lot of beers made with Strata hops but this one, I enjoyed quite a bit.

 

 

Lovely mostly clear golden bauble with a satisfying white head, moderate retention, but nice sticky lacing.

Nose is immediately fresh and bright. Hints of tropics, honey, grassy hops. Just nice and bright and fresh like a dewy morning.

Flavour follows much the same algorithm (unsurprisingly), and brings forth a bright hoppy character that has some of the same honeyed tropics with maybe a hint of grassy coconut and faint lime. Finish brings a nice bright bitterness as well. Mild amount of hop burn, and a decent amount of fresh hop character.

Bright effervescent carbonation across a medium small body. The finish has a nice little bitter bite, and the hop burn is fresh-reminding, and present but not overwhelming. This ties in with a sweetness that is noticeable, but doesn't quite step into overwhelming (not the sweetness of big malts so much as the 'sweetness' of saturated hops).

This is the best FH beer I've had so far this season. I mention 'fresh' and 'bright' a lot and I think that's the real main take home here.