Fresh Hop 2020

Had a can of FH Eliot on Sunday and a crowler of FH Perle Haggard yesterday.

IT BEGINS

 

I had a glorious pint of FH Perle Haggard at the brewery: fresh and delicious. With that and the fact that FH Eliot was sold out, I added a crowler of it for the home. I cracked it open to have with a nice dinner a couple days later and it was flat and undrinkable. Poured it down the drain. Bummer.

 

im usually not "that guy". but i would probably go back to the brewery and ask for another crowler. point them to the BA forums if they have questions, because a lot of people having this issue with that beer for some reason

 

I hate to be that guy too. That said, I wouldn't mind a do-over where I wasn't sitting in the hot sun for 20 minutes or so, waiting on that would-be-drained crowler.

 

So I went to level brewing last night to try their three Fresh Hop Offerings. Both the Fresh Hop Rustic Pilsner and the FH Oktober fest were just fine, but nothing that I would go out of my way to get. I also snagged a can of their NW Fresh Hop IPA to compare with the FH Elliott I grabbed earlier in the day.

Level's IPA was solid (though the appearance was not very good), but FH Elliot is still the Gold Standard for early fresh hop releases. Just fantastic.

 

FH Eliot cans are available at both Belmont Station and Tomorrow's Verse for takeaway

 

Fresh Strata going into a special batch of Tall Guy as we speak. Looks like it's getting canned Thursday. The FH cans should be getting into local distro. Small amount on draft as well.

 

I'm digging the FH Eliot. Based on availability and shelf life, I know the FHs tend to be mostly hyper-regional. New to the PNW but lover of the FHs (what monster would be on BA and not be?) what are some other FHs I should be looking out for?

 

oh man you are in for a treat. 99% of the FH beers dont make it out of their immediate market, and the National "Fresh Hop" beers (founders, SN, etc.) dont even compare IMO. This is probably my favorite time of the year for beer drinking.

FH Elliot is a good primer on what to expect. Based on decent intel for this year, and usual standards for FH season, here is what im looking for...

FH WanderJack (breakside/barley browns) - regular wanderjack was amazing, so very hyped if this actually happens. Sounds like Breakside is doing quite a few FH beers this year, some will be great an some will be ok. Part of the fun is seeing which beers are truly transformed with wet/fresh hops. What Fresh Beast has been very good the past few years as well.

Fremont Cowiche Canyon - Oregon usually gets a decent amount (not sure about this year), but this one is great
Fremont also makes Farm to Fresh IPAs. I like them, but Cowiche is far better.

Laurelwood FH Workhose - FH version of their flagship IPA. Regular WH is a pretty good IPA, the FH version is spectacular (IMO)

Barley Browns FH Pallet Jack - if you see it, order it. nuff said

Ft George usually drops some FH beers, but not sure whats on deck this year. But they know what they are doing and i always give them a go

Georgetown FH Bodhi (or any of their beers) -- not sure if we will see any in OR this year, but they sent some down last year and it was amazing.

past that, there will be offerings from Stormbreaker, Gigantic, Deschutes, maybe pFriem (?), maybe wayfinder (?). Alesong made a really good FH sour/saison last year.

I also really dig FH ciders. Rev Nats FH Hopricot is good, and there are some others where the hops completely take over the apple flavor which i like.

most of the fun is finding the pleasant surprises that drop each year. annually a random mid-tier brewery will drop the standout of the season (or top 5) which is cool

 

Crux, Sunriver, and Bend Brewing have all put out great FH beers in the last few years. Double Mountain's Killer Red and Killer Green are more old-school base beers but Killer Lion is worth checking out. I'll echo @derftron 's point about pleasant surprises; every year at least one of the top 5 best of the season FH beers comes from an unexpected brewery.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with what shall now be deemed “The Tome of Fresh Hop by @derftron ” (by me, at least). Spot on.

From Washington, Reuben’s has had some good offerings, and Fremont usually does an impressive fresh hop version of their Head Full of Dynamite series later in the season, but I agree that their Cowiche Canyon is their most prized FH offering.

I’ll turn the reverb up to 11 on the echo: The ‘pleasant surprise’ factor is real. It adds a sense of discovery to what is already the best beer drinking time of year in our neck o’ the woods.

 

Breakside is the gold standard with regards to fresh hop beers. They've been doing it longer and better than pretty much anyone else in the business and their IPAs in particular are always must tries.

 

Nice one! Thank you all, looking forward to this for sure.

 

Cloudburst in Seattle usually makes a ton of fresh hop beers, like a half dozen at least. I hope that they do that this year and offer them in cans.

And as mentioned earlier, the Georgetown fresh hop offerings are usually very good as well. I would expect those to be growler only at the brewery.

 

Don't forget, Fresh Hop season can last towards the end of the year if you wait long enough for de Garde's The Frais, their "lambic" they infuse with fresh hops.

 

Apparently not, according to an article called "Fresh hop season looks different during pandemic" on The New School:

"Some breweries, such as Hood River’s pFriem, have decided to forego fresh hop beers altogether due to decreased demand from bars as well as in their own taproom..."

It's a good article. Worth reading.

100% true. And they come from different breweries each year.

They even come from breweries whose other beers might not be very impressive.

Such is the magic of the year's best season for beer.

 

Tasted so fresh we had to can it today! Should be at the pubs tomorrow.

 

Edit: Cans are available at Milwaukie right now!