Fresh Hop Hop Truck Crossing
Barley Brown's Brewpub

2023 version, 8.5%

A clear light amber with a dense, off-white head with excellent retention and lacing. The nose is bright, pungent fresh Citra, piney, resinous, herbaceous with a little bit of fresh citrus zest. No real malt. The palate opens bitter, dank and deep, with a rich fresh hop character. Pine, citrus, dank, lovely zest. Pungent. Drying, clean, bitter on the finish. Medium light in body, moderate carbonation. Lovely DIPA.

Draft at Matlacks. Dark golden, cloudy, one finger fluffy head, clumpy lacing. Don't be fooled by the light hoppy aroma, they come in by the truckload in the taste. Bitterness grabs you by the tonsils and sticks around. The ABV is well hidden. Really nice.

this is not retired, it is current here in 2021, although im guessing the recipe has changed some, lower abv now at 7.6% abv where i had it, and done with fresh citra. i am sure this has changed year to year. its a slightly maltier side of ipa, and of fresh hop beer, light amber in color, clear, short white head on it, strong nose of citra, easily identifiable as such, boldly dosed, uniquely bitter as these go, and really balanced. its super clean both in terms of the fermentation profile being minimal and in terms of the malt sugars being fully eaten up, this really doesnt have much late sweetness at all despite being as malt forward as it is in flavor. toasted and warming, autumnal to me, but not sugary. the hops are covered up just a little by the grain, which almost puts this into the strong pale category for my tastes, but the wetness of the hops do prevail, fresh cut grass, zested lemon, and muddled lemongrass to me, maybe a little pine, and perhaps the beer is bittered with something other than citra. it has an oily fulness to it, an intense freshness without being green, and overall is a little old school but very good. i always know i can trust these guys on the hoppy stuff, no surprise their wet hop is excellent as well!

 

Sampled at the fresh hop fest in Hood River. While this beer was quite good, it had the unfortunate task of competing with it's sibling, the awesome FH pallet jack (which it was poured side by side with). Fresh Hop HTC was proably the second best beer I tasted at the fest, but it was hard to fully appreciate it, after trying the FH Pallett Jack. Still, this was yet another outstandnign effort from the folks at Barley Brown. One of things I likedd about both this and the FH Pallet Jack, was the extra layer of flavor and complexity the beer picked up from the fresh hop additon. It's beers like this that make you wish fresh hop season was year round.