Fresh Hop 2019

The missus is heading for Boise this weekend.

That is exactly what I want from a fresh hop beer, and it delivers beautifully. I look forward to splitting a can with the missus in a couple hours.

 

Portland folks: there's a Late Harvest Fresh Hop Festival at Loyal Legion this Saturday from noon to 5:00.

From the Facebook Event page:

"Portland Beer Week has organized a curated selection of some of the finest new fresh hop beers from Oregon and Washington that use hot new hop varieties like Citra, Mosaic, Comet and Idaho 7. These fresh hop beers are released much later than the rest because these hip hops are harvested last, at the tail end of the season."

BEER LIST:

• Wayfinder Beer/Varietal Beer: Peaceful Death and Pretty Flowers Fresh Hop Hazy IPA
• Block 15 Brewing: Fresh Catch Fresh Hopped Pale Ale
• Culmination Brewing: Fresh Hop Tiny Spirals Hazy Pale Ale
• Fremont Brewing: Head Full of Fresh Hops
• Reuben’s Brews: Fresh Hop Double Crush IPA
• Grains of Wrath: FH Heavy Wetal IPA
• Grains of Wrath: Fresh Hop Papermaker Pale
• Aslan Brewing: Fresh Hop Kellerbier
• Buoy Beer: My Own Private Idaho - 4.8% 25 IBU
• Wander Brewing: 400 Cents: Centennial Fresh Hop
• Wander Brewing: Fresh Cassette
• Alesong Brewing & Blending: Farm Fresh
• Oakshire Brewing: Hop Harvest 2019
• Bale Breaker / Cloudburst: Citra Slicker
• Fort George Brewing: Fields of Green
• Sunriver Brewing: D’ Kine Fresh hop IPA
• Little Beast Brewing / Our Mutual Friend (Denver, CO): Our Mutual Fresh Hop
• De Garde Brewing: The Frais

 

My latest fresh hop was Georgetown Fresh Hop Velvet Larry, last night at Beer Star in White Center. Wow, it's a great IPA, right up there with the best I've had this year. At some point, you know, it's kind of ridiculous to try to rank fabulous beers against each other. Which is better, FH Velvet Larry, or FH Bodhi, or FH Cowiche, or Citra Slicker or ... fill in the blanks with your favorite.

Don't miss Velvet Larry, that's all I can say.

 

The second rule of Fresh Hop Club is “Order FH Georgetown on sight - no questions.”

Picked up three crowlers of FH Velvet Larry two days ago and enjoyed one last night. Like a Mosaic Bodhi. Definitely in the top echelon for me this season.

 

I try to be as Non-FOMO as I can. I really do. But you and @VashonGuy are killing me with your FH Georgetown posts, and I am trying very hard not to talk myself into making an interstate beer run this weekend...

 

Late to the party, but I found four (!) different fresh hop Crux beers at my local grocery store... in the Bay Area. Y’all got it good up north!

 

Hey, I'm not trying to promote FOMO anxiety. These beers are good, sure, but they're not worth a round trip drive from Portland. Maybe a ferry ride from Vashon Island, but then I do that to get a haircut.

 

I've been checking the online taplists of 15-20 likely spots for a couple weeks now.

Today my efforts paid off, and there is a growler of FH Bodhi in my fridge.

I found it at ABV Public House in Hillsboro. It also appears to be on tap at Northwest Liquid Gold across the river in Vancouver.

 

I enjoyed samplers of the following fresh hops at Loyal Legion this afternoon:

1. Wander Fresh Cassette IPA (Citra)
2. Aslan Fresh Hop Kellerbier (Centennial)
3. Ecliptic Astra FH Lager (Centennial)
4. Buoy My Own Private Idaho (Idaho 7)
5. Culmination Fresh Hop Tiny Spirals (Idaho 7)
6. Block 15 Fresh Catch Fresh Hop Pale (Amarillo)
7. Wayfinder Peaceful Death and Pretty Flowers (Mosaic)
8. Barley Brown's Fresh Hop Mitch (Citra)
9. De Garde The Frais

#6 and #7 were my favorites for the day. #3 was also a very good lager, though lacking in Centennial character at this point in the season.

 

I decided to do that fresh hop french press thing at Breakside last night and now I'm kicking myself for not trying it sooner. I thought it was going to be a gimmick, but it really does give a huge burst of fresh hop flavor to your beer, and they've got a nice pale ale collaboration with Wayfinder on tap that provides a great base beer for the experiment. If they do this next year I'm going to stop in repeatedly to try the different hop varieties. They're doing it with Sterling now and my guess is that's the last they have for the season.

 

As of this evening, I have tried 61 different fresh hop beers this season. Given that it's almost November, I don't expect that number to change much.

But it does give me a number to aim for next year.

 

FH Head Full of Dynamite was lingering at my local NSM and I must say, this beer might wear the crown for me this year. It has the fruit-forward flavor I hope for in a well done hazy'ish beer plus the prominent aromatics of fresh hops and a resounding bitterness. Sublime. Well done.

 

Agreed.

It's in my top tier for sure, and probably the only hazy to do so.

I found the last four-pack at The Store That Shall Not Be Named, and snagged it right quick. I split a can with some friends at a Halloween party last night, and they were impressed. Great stuff, and glad I still have a few cans left.

 

I’ve had 69 unique fresh hop beers, and bought number 70 at the grocery store earlier today: Machine House Mosaic Pale. I’m done drinking for the weekend and I don’t drink during the week, so I’ll celebrate this liver destroying milestone on Friday.

 

Was shopping at World Foods in the Pearl on Saturday and they had at least 6-7 cans of Fresh Hop Crikey still. I really did love the can I had this year, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy any of these leftovers because I knew I'd be disappointed. They looked so sad though, I really did want to take them home.

 

I'm not sure what happened from a distribution perspective, but those just appeared at World Foods maybe 2 weeks ago. They had a delivery back when it was fresh and they disappeared off the shelf pretty quick, then these randomly appeared recently. I passed on round 2 for the same reason you did.