Another Shot at Frozen Fresh Hops

I’ve had a handful of beers made with flash-frozen hops etc. They were fine. I guess my main concern pertains to the amount of energy needed to freeze these hops and keep them at the required temps until they are used. My understanding (someone can and certainly will correct me if I’m mistaken) is that extreme temps in either direction require extreme amounts of energy. If so, my opinion of them would be the same as my opinion about cryptocurrency.

 

Honestly, I don't remember having a wet hop beer since the SN Estate series stopped being produced. Could just be a distribution thing for this part of the country. Back when they were big, most of them weren't that great, too grassy (could be a travel issue), was in the period between the wane of WCIPA and the wax of NEIPA, so malt backgrounds were not ideal for the style. SN nailed it, other than that, I'd say ESB, English IPA, or possibly old school East Coast IPA would be the best canvas.

So far as whether or not this is a viable product, maybe if it was vacuum frozen at dry ice temps and was kept there until use, but that would be a big use of resources. But like I said, I'm not an agro-chemist specializing in the preservation of volatile oils.

 

If their goal is to make "fresh" hops available to brewers outside the PNW, it seems like that may be an uphill battle. Like the above post indicates, fresh hop beers aren't really a thing that people go nuts for outside the PNW. How many beer geeks in the Midwest/East coast are hunting for that elusive watermelon flavor in a fresh hopped beer? How many are even aware of it? How many would be excited about a frozen fresh hop beer?

Just my impression, I could be wildly off base.

 

They claim their process is patent pending, but cryogenic freezing of food is well established.

It’s not clear to me what (if anything) they are doing differently than other readily available commercial systems.

 

Maybe the public, yes me no. WTF are they now?

 

The second anyone claims their process is saving the planet; I smell BS & hopes of money,

 

Flash freezing an herb and it retaining it's fresh qualities is way more difficult than a fruit or seafood or whatever. Think about how different frozen spinach tastes vs. fresh.

 

Kind of a strange way to look at it. Just because it isn't a thing doesn't mean it can't or won't be.
Of course, that's if there was the ability to give brewers in areas outside the NW the opportunity to brew with fresh hops more easily. Given the fact that hoppy beer is some of the most popular in the craft beer industry, I'd expect well crafted FH beer to do well anywhere people get the chance to try it. I mean, look at lagers. Fifteen years ago few in the US were all that interested in them. But as techniques and availability improve so has demand.
If you enjoy hops, a great FH can be a mind blowing experience.

 

You are discounting how much fresh hops lose their attractive attributes as they travel, both in raw form to breweries and as packaged beer. The bigger craft breweries on the west coast have a supply chain where they could get the fresh hops in quickly for brewing, but distribution east didn't really work, as refrigerated transportation and storage cross-country wasn't guaranteed. SN was the only brewery that really pulled it off, to my palate, and it seems like they gave it up because the supply chain was a headache. The eastern brewers that tried, well, they tried, but once the PNW hops got here, they weren't as pungent and were just grassy, and there are breweries on the right coast that buy up fresh hops from hopeful local farmers, but the terroir just isn't there.

 

First, I think people would go crazy for properly made fresh hop beers if they could get them in the quality, quantity, and diversity that they are available this time of year in the PNW. It’s essentially an accident of geography that they can’t.

Second, I’m not sure anyone is saying that cryogenically frozen hops are equivalent to true fresh hops. Some kind of chemical change has to occur in the freezing and unfreezing process that alters the taste and aroma profile of these hops.

 

That’s part of why I raised the energy question (aside from the environmental aspect, which is always top of mind). If hops on their own are the most energy-intensive ingredient in beer, and then you add the flash freezing/storage process, and then on top of that high transportation costs—well, the end result had better be profoundly better than your traditional hop-forward beer. My guess is that in most cases it’s not, and most beer drinkers can’t tell enough of a difference to make it all worth the additional cost for the brewer. Maybe it works more as a gimmick, but as a long-term strategy I guess I don’t see use of these frozen hops as paying off for most breweries.

 

Yum. Cheers to the memories. Those were such a treat.

 

Celebration brewed with frozen fresh hops could be interesting, but then that beer is almost sacred so I’d hate to see too many changes made to it—there could be real backlash if it was noticeably different from what we have come to expect it to be. It’s marketed as a fresh hop beer but it’s a totally different animal from what that term means when we talk about FH beers up here.

 

Of course, I would argue that “fresh” is the only correct term when talking about using hops in the brewing process within 24 hours of harvest (as we do things here)—but if brewers are not doing that then they have no business using that word. And I’ll also point out that in the title of this thread you chose to use the term “frozen fresh,” which is obviously an oxymoron.