Fresh Hop 2020

Drinking a pint of Chainline Hopboblina FH IPA. Anew brewery for me from Kirkland. Very nice indeed
Anyone have more info on these guys.

 

Had two more with my buddy in Woodinville on the side of the road with some Pakistani/Indian food for dinner:

Pictured is Wandering Hop's My Pal Andy Fresh Hop Imperial Hazy IPA (3rd quartile) and Single Hill's Skyfinder Fresh Hop Hazy IPA (2nd quartile).

Edited to correct My Pal Andy's brewery -- incorrectly written as "Wayfinder" initially.

Bought them both plus a Seapine fresh hop Citra (and a 32oz growler of Notorious) at Thirsty Hop. They had at least one more on tap (I think it was a Matchless) and a few more in cans in the cooler.

 

Next up. Ecliptic Astra FH lager.
Strange but nice aftertaste..like mint or even weak liquorice. Earthy not usual..but interesting.

 

I haven’t had that one, but Chainline always has serviceable brews with some options canned. I wouldn’t go out of my way to hunt down their stuff as the likes of Fremont, Reuben’s, Holy Mountain, and Mirage are available, but every so often they’ll produce a great beer that makes for a serendipitous night or pack of tallboys. Definitely the best of the three Kirkland breweries thus far.

 

Still have yet to try Cowiche or HFOFH, but I plan to fix that soon. I picked up Holy Mountain's Cone & Cone after having missed the first HM FH release, and this one has mosaic which I love.

My updated ranking after the last weekend. Ultrawet is the first Cloudburst FH of the season I was able to obtain and, as expected, absolutely loved it. Oh and Fort George's Fresh is finally good this year!

1. Mirage Pleasure Race
2. Fremont F2F
3. Reuben's Fresh Hop Crikey
4. Cloudburst Ultrawet
   
5. Ex Novo Eliot Centennial
6. Reuben's FH Double Crush
   
7. Silver City Wet Hop Tropic Haze
8. Ft George Fresh IPA
   
9. Single Hill Ecstasy of Green
10. Breakside Fresh Wanderlust - Cascade
    
11. Stoup Fresh Hop Fiend - Strata
12. Everybody's Head Stash
    
13. Hellbent Strata FH
14. Ruse Prefrontal Polaroid
    
15. Matchless CSA
16. Occidental Fresh Hop Pilsner
17. Hopworks FH Ace of Spades
18. Crux Pert Near

 

Jesus feeling so bad about no running or biking..i do roughly 10000 steps a day according to my phone, I feel so guilty.......even if i have had friends all fit and died early..stress on your body

 

They also do a Mosaic version, just a heads up.

 

I’ll be coming into SEA next Friday till Tuesday. Looking for anything Washington or Oregon IPA’s. Hazy or west coast. But also looking for wet hop offerings. I can get Fremont here in OC/LA area. Looking at your list I don’t think I’ll be able to get everything listed here. Mainly looking for cans to go. I’ll be in landing at SEA and renting a car and heading straight to GN Georgetown for some cans. Speaking of GN do they have any fresh hop offerings? After Georgetown I’ll be in Snohomish that night and down in Puyallup the next 3 nights. I posted in the Seattle thread already. But posting here for the wet hop cans to consume and take home. I would like to find a place to enjoy on draft while I’m in the Puyallup area.

 

Before you head to Puyallup, stop by Chuck's Hop Shop. They'll have more fresh hop cans than you can cram in a suit case. Full Throttle in Georgetown is also a great spot.

As for Snohomish, Trails End Taphouse is great, as is Josh's Taps and Caps. There are several breweries up there as well (Spada, Scrappy Punk, Three Bull), but I haven't been in awhile. I don't know much about Puyallup, but I suppose it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to recommend Pint Defiance in Tacoma.

 

Caskcades has a little bit of packaged to go selection. I assume they're open now for some kind of at-location drinking.

Rainier Growlers is supposed to be a good stop, I've never been there, no idea if they have canned or bottled stuff.

CRFT in Auburn should be a good shopping stop. Haven't been there in months, no idea what's available right now.

 

Great Notion did two fresh hop beers: FH Ripe and FH Super Ripe. FH Ripe was the only one in cans and they're long gone. They don't do fills. Since you're down in Georgetown, you've also got Georgetown Brewing and Lowercase (who shares the building with Great Notion). Georgetown doesn't can their fresh hops, just growler fills, and I think they're currently pouring their last one of the year, so you might be out of luck there. Machine House should have bottles of their Simcoe FH and maybe even the Mosaic one by the time you're here. And Full Throttle is across the street from Machine House with lots and lots of cans. Seapine isn't very far away and they canned their Citra FH.

If you time it right, you could place orders for FH cans from Reubens, Urban Family and Holy Mountain online. They will hang on to items for you for a couple days (HM is strict on 48 hours, not sure about Reubens and Urban Family). There's also a Cloudburst location in Ballard near UF and Reubens, and they've been canning their fresh hops. Stoup is across from UF and they've got a good amount of canned FHs, too.

Like I said in the other thread, Caskcades (downtown Puyallup) and Rainier Growlers (South Hill) will both have FH beers on tap, and Caskcades has a pretty solid selection of bottles and cans to go. They keep their inventory pretty up to date on Untappd. Last time I was at Rainier Growlers, they had a very small curated selection of sours and barrel aged bottles. You might not be as lucky there, but you can get fills of whatever they've got on tap. There's also a Total Wine up on South Hill where Rainier Growlers is. They'll have some fresh hop cans in singles and packs.

CRFT Beers is in Auburn just north on 167, they have a great selection for the South end. Airways isn't much further North in Kent, as well. They've never canned a FH in the past, always been draft only, but Covid is causing everyone to behave differently.

 

Fresh Hop Pallet Jack on at Apex

Repeat...... FH Pallet Jack on at Apex

 

Yeah I read your post in the Seattle thread. I have my radar on for Rainier Growlers and Caskcades. We’re staying at the Best Western and I see Tacoma Boys is almost walking distance. From some of the photos looks like they have cans and bottles?

 

also at Johns on Powell

 

I would guess Tacoma Boys has good bottle/can selection...the one that I go to (close to the Tacoma Narrows bridge.

 

Happy to report that Seapine's Citra Fresh Hop is pretty nice.

 

Damn that looks really good.