Fresh Hop Season 2022

CAN'T WAIT.

Ah, that is to say, yes, I am among those chomping at the bit. Yes.

 

CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP, MOAR MOAR MOAR!

In an announcement sure to excite people by the single digits, I am resurrecting The Fresh Hop Project to get a grip on FH beer current producers and release dates.

My competition is adding FH judging this year. We’re partnering with the Sisters Fresh Hop festival to conduct judging 9/23. I know a single date doesn’t cut it for the entire season, so we’re looking to add a later date next year and have both early harvesting and late harvesting varieties covered without judging entries too long in the tooth. Help me figure out the optimal timing for late harvest judging by sharing fresh hop beer details when you hear about them. Public viewing link to follow.

 

When will Seattle see its first fresh hops show up? Who and what to expect?

 

The first in the state is almost always Two Beers Brewing from Seattle. They're sometimes nearly a month ahead of the others. As excited as I am for the fresh hop season I've passed on Two Beers fresh hop for the last several years as I find it to be largely unremarkable.

 

It’s been much later recently. Feels like WA fresh hops didn’t show up until mid September last year.

 

I couldn’t find the specifics when I looked back on Instagram. But Brian from Moonlight said something about either picking or brewing this years batch of Homegrown Wet Hop Ale for this year. So expect it somewhat soon.

 

They put out the last wet hop beer of the season last year and I feel like both of their wet hop beers were late in the season. I wonder what changed? Their can language last year also made it seem like the hops came from their own farm, I wonder what the story is with their connections to the hop ranch and if it all comes from local farms.

 

Global warning?
Unsure to be honest.

 

Most likely explanation identified, thank you.

Seriously though, they had a wet hop dark lager that was canned in like late October that was pretty interesting. I guess maybe they lagered it real long and it was brewed mid September? Or even earlier? But even their regular Homegrown wet hop ale typically shows up late in the season. Maybe they've been expanding their planting though and have some new varieties in. I'd love to see more hops go in in Sonoma and Mendocino counties

 

That sounds super cool

 

Two Beers is having their hop picking party on Monday the 22nd. The beer will be ready 3-4 weeks after that.

One thing to remember is the first round or two of Oregon FH beers are standard beers ready to go and then have fresh hops thrown in at the end of the process. There was an article about this last year how WA breweries brew with the fresh hops throughout the process which is why they come out later.

 

This thread is intended for beer brewed with wet (fresh) hops from this year’s upcoming harvest but I thought that some folks might be interested in knowing there is a new product from YCH which permits the brewing of wet (fresh) hops year-round. Below is an extract from a soon to be published article:

“While we are discussing the purchase of wet hops, there is a new product from Yakima Chief Hops - Frozen Fresh Hops for commercial breweries:

https://www.yakimachief.com/commercial/hop-wire/frozen-fresh-hops

With this new product commercial breweries are no longer hostage to harvest time to produce wet hopped beers but can instead produce them year-round. But the logistics are a bit more challenging since this product needs super cold temperature storage (i.e., between 0°F and 14°F) which is essentially freezer temperatures. They must be transported via sub-freezing shipping containers and/or REEFER trucks and stored at freezer temperatures upon receipt by the brewery. If the brewery only has a cold room (i.e., refrigerator temperature) this new product must be used fairly quickly (i.e., within 48 hours of receipt).”

Cheers!

 

Really hope more FH beers come down to SoCal this year. The FH Fremont Head Full of Dynamite (I believe) blew me away last year

 

Lots of WA and OR breweries have been using these for the last two years now. They're close but not the same thing.

 

If you get more fresh hops down there, it's because we didn't drink enough up here

I will do my best to deprive you

(and yeah, Head Full of Fresh Hops is perennially in my highest tier)

 

All hops will vary based upon a large number of variables: where the hops were exactly grown (e.g., hill 57 of hop farm x), when they were harvested, how much rain over the growing season, etc. Knowing the 'effects' flash freezing is likely a lesser aspect than the others I already listed.

Cheers!

 

It would be cool to see a brewer brew the same beer, one with wet hops and the other with fresh frozen hops from the same harvest.

 

Cloudburst did

Yep, well aware of all of that. It's what makes fresh hop season so cool, to see the variability within that year's harvest. Regardless, the flash frozen hop beer doesn't have the same level of oily "dankness" that I tend to pick up on with fresh hop beers.

A good example is Cloudburst's Yakima Freeze that they've done in 2021 and 2022. I've had it both years. It uses frozen fresh Citra, Mosaic and Simcoe and it's got a different vibe going on than your standard kilned hop IPA, but it's also not the same as a FH version. As much as the flash freezing helps retain those qualities, something still seems lost in that freezing/storage. Keep making and I'll drinking them, though!

Fresh hop beers are serious business. @sharpski knows what I'm talking about.

 

Very cool. They're Seattle based right?

I've worked with freeze drying aromatic flowers fairly extensively and there is absolutely something that is lost in the process. In fact, during the freeze-thaw cycles that comprise the freeze drying process there is some melt water that is produced and drained off and that water is intensely aromatic.

Also, when doing water extraction, the two products (wet, frozen flower vs freeze dried flower) behave differently. Its much easier to accidentally extract more chlorophyll/vegetal flavors using the wet frozen product, but if you engage with it properly you can get a much greater aromatic depth than you can with the freeze dried flower (i think this would correspond with your "oily dankness"). My experience is all with cold water extraction so it's not an exact correlary with extractions in brewing, but I suspect there are parallels.

 

Yep. Varietal out of Sunnyside (right in the hear of hop country) did one like that as well.

 

I've really got to make a trip to hop country sooner rather than later

 

My head's hurting trying to differentiate between wet hops and fresh frozen hops because the word fresh doesn't appear where i expect it to. Perhaps you meant fresh hops vs freshly frozen hops?

 

Flash frozen fresh hops!

 

Per their IG post, Ex Novo Fresh Hop Eliot packaging this Friday.

Level and Deschutes also posting about FH beers brewing today.

 

Someone earlier even than Two Beers?

This must be one of those where they infuse an already brewed beer with fresh hops?

 

Has to be, and they were cagey about which variety.

 

Those are all of the early Oregon FH beers.

 

IIRC, they had it out very early last year as well. Really wish they were still shipping beer to WA because FH Eliot was probably my favorite fresh hop brew last year.

 

If they're packaging this Friday, that's actually a few days later compared to 2021



Fresh Hop Eliot with Centennial hops from Goschie Farms was packaged on August 16 last year.

 

So don’t expect much of any fresh hops in Seattle the last weekend in August?

 

Zoiglhaus also mentioned fresh hops are already going. Their Oktoberfresh and Fresh Hop Kolsch were two of my favorite FH beers last year.

 

Yeah FH Elliott Centennial is special because it always marks the official start of FH seasons in addition to being a fantastic beer.