Fresh Hop 2024

Fortunately, both beers are still readily available all over PDX right. Hoping to begin my search in a coupe hours!

 

Starting the day at Belmont Station with a glass of fh Hazelicious. It's OK, but no better than that. But then got a can of Single Hill Fresh Luck. Jeeze Louweeze!!! So redolent of dankness and fh goodness. Just fantastic stuff!

After that tried a splash of Reubens fh pils, von ebert fh pils, baerlic stay fresh and Vion ebert fh sector. All are OK, but don't really ciompare to the single hill. It's interesting the impact fh has on the pils I've tried this year. Really adds a considerable flavor element.

 

At Breakside slabtown today. I alway hate coming over here, given the parking situation (which completely sucks). However, the fh selection is so good, I had to pop (bip?) on over.

Staring at a taster tray of fh ipa, what fresh beast, fh wanderlust, fh double wanderlust, the fh xpa and the fh bluebird skies. There's not a bad beer in the bunch, but the fh mosaic hop ipa is a knock out. After that I'm liking the fh wanderlust and fresh beast best, followed by the bluebird. The fh talus hops imparted an unusual flavor profile... sort of like soapy shampoo meets fresh onions. Sounds awful, but the two flavors play well together. The xpa is OK, but just isn't showing well in this group of heavyweights. Likewise, the double wanderlust is pretty good, but I think the high abv. does this beer no favors.

So glad I made it back home in time to try these fh breakside beers. Still on the look out for fh Wanderjack...

Next stop is Grape Lotion. I'm not the biggest GL fan, but they're close to slabtown and they do tend to make good fh beers.

After that it'll be time to call an ambulance.

 

That must include me. Tried it along with 5 other excellent fh breakside beers and thought it the best in the bunch.

 

Now at GL with a taster tray of fh laser wolf, fh juice Jr, fh ripe, fh dune and fh easy lift. Hmmm....

The fh laser has considerable fh character on the palate, but I'm not liking it very much. The fh character seems to clash with the typical GL hazy tropical fruit. FH juice is a bit better, but suffers from the same problem. Fh easy lift is just not a very good ipa IMHO. Once again however, the fh character doesn't seem to play well with the base beer. The dune is your typical GL juice bomb with very little fh character. Maybe that's for the best, as it's my favorite beer of the group so far. FH ripe is actually pretty good, as it tends to be every year IMO. The fh character shows pretty well in this beer. It still doesn't compare to the excellent fh breakside beers I just sampled, but it's pretty good.

Maybe I'm just not a fan of their style, but I'm not a huge fan of this GL fh stuff. After a couple minutes, the fh juice Jr is just not my cup of tea. The laser wolf is tasting a bit better, but still isn't doing anything for me. I won't be able to finish either of my taster pours. Not liking the Easy Lift either frankly. GL beers are not cheap, so it's no fun having to drain pour these beers. The dune and fh ripe are still tolerable, so I should be able to at least drink them.

IMHO opinion, fh season has been a complete fail for GL this year. They've made good fh beers in the past, but this year's versions are just not all that great. And these beers are not cheap. Pints are $8.50 for everything other than the Easy Lift, which is $8.

I don't get it.