Fresh Hop Season 2022

From Altamont, this one's made with fresh cashmere hops from Thomsen Farms. I'm not too familiar with cashmere but Im getting some good FH character from this one, happy I've got 3 more in the fridge

 

Stormbreaker's FH What we Brew in the Shadows is a pretty excellent FH pils. It makes me eagerly await the Occidental FH beers

 

Hazy? Check
Excessively alcoholic? Check
Thanks for taking one for the team.

 

Second Profession, well they are just living up to their name. Giving the punters what they think they desire.
Punk Rawk

 

Last year, Flying Lion's Strata FH was one of those out of nowhere surprise winners for me.
This year, Flying Lion's ADHA-218 Experimental Fresh Hop IPA... is not.



ADHA-218 may not be the hop for me in general, but even beyond that, this beer didn't really have any FH character, and I didn't overly enjoy it irregardless of it's FH status. It wasn't a drainpour or anything, but it is solidly down at the bottom of this year's rankings for me alongside Green Keeper.

 

Sometimes a risk turns out to be a gem.

But not in this case.

On the other hand, Away Days Deadline Day Fresh Hop Pale Ale, with Goschie Farms Centennial hops, is very nice indeed. Recommended.

 

Maybe it's because their logo looks a lot like Belching Beaver's haha.

 

From today's email newsletter from Baerlic Brewing:

Alright; this is the week we have ALL been waiting for!!! We've got THREE FRESH HOP BEERS coming out of the tanks midweek.

When our trucks hit the road Thursday morning they'll be full of Fresh Hop Punk Rock Time along with our first release this year of Fresh Hop Stay Fresh SIMCOE IPA & if that's not enough we'll also have this year's version of our fan favorite Fresh Hop Pioneer along side of it all.

These deliciously fresh beers will be available at all 3 Baerlic locations in cans or draft & via our Home Delivery service starting Thursday September 15th at open. 4-packs/cases of cans will go fast on these limited runs so we have opened up pre-orders ahead of packaging to ensure all will be able to reserve the fresh cans ahead of release for either pickup or next day home delivery.


Fresh Hop Punk Rock Time - IPA
This version of our award-winning Punk Rock Time IPA is cold condition’d on 6lbs/BBL of fresh from the farm Chinook hops. Packed full of watermelon and overripe tropical fruit, fresh cedar tips and just the right amount of that fresh hop ‘green’ note layered over a soft and crisp malt body.
ABV 6.2%

Fresh Hop Stay Fresh Simcoe - IPA
Brewed with 100% Pilsner malt for a Crispy’N’Dry IPA with notes of candied orange, spring flowers and dank grapefruit with a sturdy California-style bitterness. Then loaded up with fresh Simcoe hops straight from the farm!
ABV 6.7%

Fresh Hop Pioneer - ESB
Pioneer is a British-style pale ale cold conditioned on Fresh from the farm Mt. Hood Hops grown in the beloved Willamette Valley—elegant and perfumey fresh hop character of melon, concord grape, fruit and spice.
ABV 5.9%

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Why yes, I am interested in all of these. And just in time for my birthday this weekend.

 

From the Machine House newsletter:

Fresh Hops have arrived at Machine House!
This week we are excited to release our first of five Fresh Hop beers this year, a delicious Centennial Pale Ale brewed with freshly picked Centennial from CLS Farms.
We used heaps of fresh hops throughout the hot side including a massive (mash-tun) hopback addition, before adding more fresh hops directly to the cooled wort before fermentation. This light, easy-drinking pale has a beautiful depth of those distinctive fresh hop aromas, highlighting notes of citrus zest, candied lime and ripe melon.

 

I stopped at the Level on Sandy yesterday and had a Fresh Hop Game On with Goschie Centennial - tasty but did not blow me away. The missus got a Fresh Hop Button Smasher that was better. I got some cans of that and the FH Pixelated Pale, both with Colman Simcoe. Digging these for sure.

 

Agreed. Flying Lion’s Experimental FH is easily the bottom of the barrel for me this season thus far, so I’m glad to hear last year’s Strata from them was good.

 

had the FH Steeplejack tropical pils.

really liked it!

 

I'm alive and well, just spending less time on the webz overall these days. FWIW, we have FH Pils w/Willamette and FH IGA w/Crystal on tap at Milwaukie right now. I think FH Trade Secrets has been my fav of ours thus far. This Saturday 9/17, Prost will have all the Single Hill FH collabs on tap if you want to try ours and the Wayfinder/Gigantic/Von Ebert collab.

 

I’m happy you’re still around, man. Tell Ben I said you should get paid to be our liaison on BA, I’m sure he’ll go for it.

 

Is that a brewery?

 

On Saturday I finally had my first FH beer of the year, an Eliot, that was on as a guest taps at Golden Handle. Sadly, it was their official Grand Opening weekend, so Nehemiah wasn't going to have the time to run back to check if the keg said which version it was, so I didn't even ask.

 

Those empanadas sound kinda epic.

 

had another can last night. my favorite non-IPA FH of the season so far.

 

Yes. Yes they do. Especially with a smoked lager.

 

Looks like it's on tap at the Hillsboro taproom. I foresee a bike ride out there at some point this coming weekend.

 

Anyone have the 411 on Fremont releases this year?
@dauss what's the word on superdamp?

 

It's about time someone found something useful to do with Lake Stevens.

 

Hi all, I am a former PNW'er living in Austin, Texas who is desperate to get my hands on some 'freshies. Is there someone who would be willing to put a care box for me?

Please DM me and we can work out the details and make sure it's worth your time. Only constraint is that I need the goods delivered by Saturday, 24th September. Cheers!

 

At Breakside Slabtown

FH Wanderlust - Mosaic
FH Evan is my Homie - Mosaic
FH Trade secrets - Simcoe
FH IGA - Crystal

All were good but the two Mosaics really stood out to me. IGA was right up there as well

 

Unless they’re just throwing in fresh Mosaics into a finished beer, mid September seems crazy early for Mosaic fresh hop beers.

 

That seems to be an approach with growing popularity

 

FH Wanderlust w/Mosaic will be on tap at Milwaukie today as well.

 

Cloudburst makes a crazy number of fresh hops and their first one doesn’t even come out until next week.

 

Man, that Breakside FH IPA is so good. I had a few cans of the Trade Secrets. Almost a perfect WCIPA on its own. The fresh hop isn’t super pronounced, but definitely shines through where it needs to. I prefer my IPAs with a bit more tropical/grassy/dank notes. This hits those perfectly. Need to find more.

Also picked up a 4 pack of Fresh Hop Ripe. Now available at the Beaverton GN. I have some regular Ripe on hand to compare side by side. Will report back later.

 

Sound like some purists. I'd imagine they make some wonderful examples of the style

 

Breakside has been doing this liquid nitrogen freshhopgasm for about 8 years now.

 

Is that technique just for wet hops they use on the cold side? Or do they use it on all the wet hops they brew with?

 

This year's HUB FH Abominable (centennial) is easily the best I can recall in the past couple years. Somehow the red IPA malt and the watermelon fresh centennial flavor just pop more together than I remember.

 

I’ll be interested in how the side by side turns out. Drinking a FH Ripe now and it is great. So far one of the better FH’s I’ve had this year.

 

Yes. It’s my understanding that all fresh hops at Breakside get the shatter treatment, and they’re only used on the cold side.

 

Drinking a riip fh stratacaster canned yesterday and it's got a good amount of fh character. I believe these are the same hops flown in from Indie Hops that Green Cheek and others used in their yet to be released fh beers. A good start to what is hopefully the first of many fh beers (strata and otherwise) available down here in SoCal.

 

As an old Star Trek geek, I approve of this label:



As a fresh hop fan, I approve of this beer. Pretty good for a hazy, with a decent amount of fresh hop goodness.

 

Saw Wanderlust FH..at my local. Strata I think but they want $12 a pint.
So back to the pFriem Oktoberfest. I swear I have almost finished the keg on my own last 2 weeks.