Fresh Hop 2024

Hetty Alice Fresh Coast IPA. Strata hops.
Nice stuff, but not as good as their Italian Pilsner

 

Does anyone (@afrokaze ?) know if Breakside made two versions of FH Wanderjack this year? The cans have been with fresh Citra (printed on the underside) but I see mention of Mosaic on the taplist at Slabtown.

 

As far as I know it was just Citra this year. Mosaic went into Breakside IPA, which is getting canned today, along with FH Double Wanderlust with Crystal! That might be the one I'm most excited for this year.

 

Double Wanderlust with Crystal was insane last year. Can't wait!

 

Looking forward to those two!

Did Beakside change up their fresh hop process this year? I feel like I had heard talk of that, but nothing concrete.

 

Nothing big, just small tweaks and refinements of what we've been doing for a while now. That's all I can say here.

 

Gotcha. Well, the freshies this year are certainly banging hard. Citra Wanderjack is the beer to beat for me this year.

 

I'm in agreement with most here that hazies seem to hide some of the qualities of fresh hops and don't let them shine as much, but Breakside's What Fresh Beast with HBC 1019 is pretty damn good.

I also enjoyed Gigantics FH Centennial IPA. As a beer it wasn't my favorite, but as a showcase for Centennial it was very well done, giving lots of the expected flavors.

 

ISO: time machine and/or freeze ray! My upcoming trip is soon, but not soon enough!

Dear Portland beer drinkers,

Please leave some tasty fresh hop beers for me. I promise not to call them wet hopped beers while I'm visiting.

 

Hops wet beer güt!

Er, I mean fresh! Fresh! Yes, fresh hops that become wet…

 

Breakside IPA w/ Mosaic and Double Wanderlust w/ Crystal are on tap and in cans.

 

Well heck, sounds like our visit to tomorrow night's Fresh Hop Director’s Cut just got more blurry and expensive. Oh well!

 

Fresh Hop Sticky Hands is absolutely fantastic. Definitely recommend seeking it out; seems like B15 distributed it around PDX yesterday.

 

Fresh hops have arrived in the TC. A quick bip into MCWAS resulted in me sleeping on the couch tonight (oh when the Mrs sees the bill…).

Sadly, no Breakside (why I went in the first place. I’ve heard things). I am sure these will do just nicely.



For the TC lurkers MCWAS also had a FH from Block 15 and SingleHillls FH Skyfinder.

 

Can confirm that Breakside Beaverton has 4-packs of all six of their freshies. And that my wallet is significantly lighter.

 

Also would like to point out that when you buy one of each of Breakside's FH beers it makes for a pretty rainbow in your fridge. Currently drinking 'Yellow' - FH Wanderlust with Cascades. It's delightful.

And the Breakside bartender didn't bat an eye when I walked to the counter with five different 4-packs of fresh hops, which says a lot of (very good) things about the people of Beaverton - I likely was not the first one to do so.

 

pFriem’s Fresh Hop West Coast IPA - wonderful, a lot going on but very easy to drink. I probably don't need to help the sales on this one, but do get one if you see in the wild.

 

Let us know how the Single Hill is. I am a big fan of their FH offerings but haven't seen any yet in Salem.

 

I felt like it was pretty darn amazing. There was no canned date that I could find, but it had to be the freshest of my beer run. The guy literally put it on the shelf 30 minutes before I got to the store. It also had water on top of the cans. I thought I bought cans that sprung a leak. Guessing it was residual left from a quick rinse before labels a carrier attached? Anyway, my other FH are probably just regular beers by now. They were all canned in the 9/5 range.

Here’s a description for the hop experts (both wet and dry?) - “Easy-drinking Fresh Hop featuring fresh, wet Morrier Ranch & CLS Farms Centennial with freshly dried Morrier Cascade, Wenas Hop Company Mosaic, and Morrier & Double R Hop Ranches Citra.”

SH wasn’t kidding when they said easy drinking. Three disappeared fast. The fourth would be gone too if I hadn’t put it in mixed 4 pack of my beer run for a buddy.

It smelled great, but didn’t have that explosive hop punch a lot of great ones have. The kind that knock people out in a different part of the house.

Where it shone in my book was in the taste department. What a melody of flavors in my mouth - fruitiness, bubbleguminess, pineapple, pine, resiny…best I can describe. It set the bar high for the season.