Fresh Hop 2020

Picked up some Breakside Fresh Guy Strata and Crux Sabro today. The first was great though I wonder if it had some more punch when it first came out. As for the Sabro, I just can't get into this profile. The coconut lime flavor isn't what I want in an IPA but it's considerably brighter than Pert Near. Ymmv

 

had one last night. probably the best FH hazy ive had this year (havent had the FH Ripe yet). will definitely buy again

 

According to an article at The New School, three fresh hop beers are on the way from Bend Brewing:

A fresh hop version of their flagship Tropic Pines IPA, the Fresh Trop Fresh Hop IPA will come in two different versions each highlighting a fresh single hop....Fresh Trop Simcoe will be available in 16 oz cans and draft from the Bend Brewing Co. pub on Friday September 18th.

Fresh Trop Mosaic...features 10 lbs per barrel of fresh Mosaic hops from Coleman Farms in Independence, OR. 16oz cans and draft will be released on October 2nd at the pub and hitting distribution after that.

Strata Fresh Pale Ale...will be draft only and on tap at the Bend Brewing brewpub on Friday September 18 with very limited distribution the following week.

This is wonderful news. Fresh Trop was one of my favorite fresh hop beers last year.

 

Fresh Hop Crickey is available on their website. Will pick up Friday when I go into Seattle for FtF.

 

Silver Moon released cans of Hydrosphere yesterday.

 

I was checking out Fremont’s site. Thought I read somewhere above that today is the day. Just posting to say (if this has been said, my apologies), format change...4-pack of 16 ounces. Not sure how I feel about that. A six pack of FTF is so easy to crush. Oh well. Anyone have it yet? Thoughts? Probably be a week or two before it hits the TC, so probably won’t even be worth drinking

 

Today is the day for FtF. You might have read it in that blurb from Fremont you posted, because it's right there. Hoping to get over there a little later.

I haven't done the math (and do not really want to) but I wonder if the aluminum shortage has anything to do with the prevalence of 16oz cans lately (something I've noticed). Four 16oz cans = 64 oz of beer while six 12oz cans = 72oz. But the actual surface area (aluminum) of four 16oz cans might be significantly less. I'll leave the math to someone who is good at that. Probably a similar price point but slightly less beer.

 

Fremont's Field to Ferment is available now (it wasn't available two hours ago). I just ordered some on their beer-to-go page and I'll be picking it up later tonight.

https://www.fremontbeertogo.com/

 

That is good to know. I looked for it on their beer-to-go page about an hour ago and it wasn't available then. Thanks!

P.S. to answer my own question I did the math. Assuming my calculations are right (thanks Google), four 16oz cans = 221.4 square inches of aluminum (including the top and bottom), while six 12oz cans = 274.6 square inches. This represents a 24% difference. If indeed breweries are charging at about the same price point, they are selling slightly less beer and using significantly less aluminum without taking a financial hit. This could be the new trend.

 

Fremont responded on social media that the release was for 5pm, which included online sales.

I got there around 5:10pm, and the line was eight deep, but damn if Fremont hasn’t done this before. I only waited three or four minutes, and all went smoothly.

 

“Strength in numbers!” Step up, mathletes!”

All jokes aside, this is my favorite post of the week. Thank you, @draheim !

It also makes me wonder: I have two QFCs near me in Kirkland that have carried sixers and twelvers (damn, ill miss those!) of F2F the last two or three years, yet they’ve never carried any local breweries’ four-pack tallboy offerings ever. It’ll be interesting to see if they carry any of Fremont’s fresh hop offerings this year.

 

I am splitting a can of Fort George Fresh IPA with the missus.



Just like Crux Pert Near, this year's version of Fresh IPA is better than last year's, but still not as good as the first few times I tried it.

 

Also picked up some Fresh Hop Crikey (and some festbier from both places), but won't have a chance to drink any other beers tonight. Maybe tomorrow...

This year's is really hop forward, more than I remember in past years. I think the centennial is pretty dominant, it's very west coast. As usual, nicely balanced beer.

 

Careful there. At this rate, they're going to just take my money and punch me in the face - the morning after will feel no different anyway.

But i jest. I remember similar arguments about bombers vs 12oz bottles way back when. I do wonder, though, if switching to 16oz cans makes it easier with having just one type of can to order, print labels for and store, for presumably a lower rate. Still, i don't see why i don't get a price break too.

 

Because prices are largely determined more by what people are willing to pay than what it costs to produce the item.

Yes, a producer needs to cover their costs. Beyond that, they can charge whatever the market will bear.

Great Notion 4-packs (to cite one example) almost always tend to cost more than I am willing to pay for their beer. But they don't seem to have much difficulty selling them, so they have no need to meet my price point.

 

Enjoyed some recent FH additions to my local distro today trying Matchless CSA, Little Beast Green Keeper, Sasquatch Mouth Pillow and Ruse Translator. Ruse's was certainly my favorite but all were nice to try.

 

I will never have a problem paying extra for GN..well their non pastry stout crap maybe not, but everything i have had from them is top class. The Fresh Hop Ripe was really something you have to experience.

 

I think I've had some of their fresh hop beers in years past, and thought they were terrific. If I stumbled across fresh hop cans in the wild, or found them on tap near me, I'd buy some. For science.

Come to think of it, I've had some beers this year which I enjoyed a lot more than the first couple times I tried them. So it's probably time for me to give GN a try again, to see how their beers are doing these days.

That seems fair.

 

I bought six FHs from Chuck's CD on Tuesday, drank five of them so far. I ranked them below by how much I liked them; the Stoups are definitely the standouts so far.

1. Stoup Centennial FH
2. Stoup Strata FH
3. Hopworks FH Ace of Spades
4. Fort George Fresh IPA
5. Matchless CSA FH

Still to drink:
Hellbent Strata

Hoping to pick up some Fremont FtF and possibly Reuben's FH Crikey today.