Skyfinder Fresh Hop
Single Hill Brewing

 

 

Look: Muted yellow and hazy with a huge white head that billows up, slowly settling to a pillow and leaving awesome lacing behind
Aroma: Sappy pine, grapefruit rind, peaches, tangelos, Cannabis, lemon, orange, light herbal notes, and fir needles
Taste: Oranges, pine, and grapefruit join forces on the initial hit and quickly followed by waves of all things peach. Peach flesh and astringent skin hold for a moment with lemon and dank weaving around throughout before closing with the return of citrus and conifer
Mouthfeel: Full, lightly slick, soft, medium-high carbonation, and soft on the finish with a kiss of dryness
Overall: This is some good stuff. I honestly enjoyed this beer as it’s a tasty and “not-too-hazy” feeling hazy that packs a ton of flavor into it. However, I hoped I would like it even more as two small critiques came up for me to keep this out of top-tier status. First, it doesn’t bring much fresh hop character as it drank like a standard hazy for me and second, the inclusion of HBC1019 bothers me as it brings a dominating peach note that can overpower other notes, which I find happening in this, and I wish breweries would use the same varietals of hops dried that they do fresh in a fresh hop offering as this may and has to me in the past as well, detracted from the “fresh hop” taste. Don’t get me wrong though, this is still a good beer

2022 edition, 6.4%

A mild light yellow with a dense off-white head with excellent retention and lacing. The nose is just absurdly dank and saturated with fresh hop, oily, resiny, but with the focus being on the dank, weed heavy hops, with the lighter, fruitier notes coming from the yeast. There is some berry and light diesel notes, all wholly appropriate. The palate is just saturated hops with minimal bitterness but also no grass, very minimal body and expressive yeast. It's hard to overstate how hop-focused this beer is. Dank, weedy, with dried blueberry and mild citrus. Drying, fruity, mildly bitter finish. Excellent.

Can Date: not visible (printer mis-hit)
Palate Contaminants: other beer

Medium straw color, mostly opaque. There's lots of fine white head, maybe too much.

The smell is not particularly interesting. Not much malt, although as one would expect, there's more hops. A little vegetative, a little piney. Could stand to be stronger.

I get pretty much every part of a pine tree. The sap, the needles, maybe the roots, even. Slightly savory, and it's also slightly salty, which I can't wrap my head around. Fruit is more or less absent. Sweetness is light-moderate.

It does slightly warm the tongue, which is pleasant. Alcohol is really nicely hidden. The aftertaste is that sweet and salty, along with the pine. Good, heavy weight for the type. Sometimes I'll call the look "smoothie-like," but the weight is half-way there for this brew,

 

2021-09-28
16oz can served in a stemless wineglass. Canned 21 Sep, according to the side of the label.

Pours a slightly hazy, light yellow color, with a big fluffy coarse head that turns into a clumpy ring. Smell is nice piny resin with fruity/juicy background notes and a little honeysuckle.

Taste is nice, clean, resinous and melon, maybe leans a bit toward overripe fruit toward the end but overall has a nice bitterness to it.

Mouthfeel is very light, very dry, nicely effervescent. Overall, pretty solid beer.

2022-09-19
Don't see a date on the can this year. "Wet Roy Farms strata and Van Horn Farms cascade, dry hopped with Black Star Ranches fresh AF simcoe and Roy Harvest Fresh Strata"

Slightly hazy light yellow, big fluffy head that settles into a thick, stiff layer. Smell is piney resin with strong juicy background. Not exactly honeysuckle, but some kind of sweet smelling flower. Taste is really strong citrus and maybe a little melon, dry finish and not a ton of bitterness. Very light, very dry, nice effervescence.

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2024-09-27
16oz can. No date again. "Piled sky-high with wet Roy farms Strata and Loftus Ranches Simcoe, dry hopped with freshly dried Roy Strata and Black Star Ranch Simcoe, 6.2% abv." Lots of melon. Bright, some resin bitterness, lots of floral. Very nice.

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2025-10-22
16oz can. No date. "Fresh wet Roy Farms strata in the hopback with Van Horn simcoe FAF pellets in the whirlpool. Dry hopped with copious, ripe and juicy, FAF pellets of Roy strata, Blackstar simcoe, and a kiss of Loftus Dolcita." Goes back to my 2021 notes, but much more toward the melon side. Definitely a strong bitterness.

 

16oz can into a tulip. Pours a hazy golden yellow with a 1-finger sudsy white head.

Aroma is juicy tropical goodness, grapefruit and pineapple and a bit of orange and peach.

Taste follows citrusy nose. Bright clean juicy fruit, orange and grapefruit. Clean acidity on the finish, not too sweet.

Mouthfeel is balanced and semi-dry.

Overall a very nice fresh hop beer from a brewery I don't think I'd even heard of before.