Fresh Hop Season 2022

FG’s Fresh is pretty dang tasty. I’m not real familiar with Luminosa hops, but they showcased freshness quite well.

I was disappointed not to see Breakside’s FH Wanderlust at New Seasons last night, but ther was this can I hadn’t seen anywhere else with a golden label. Bottom just said “IPA Cascade” canned 9/22. I bought two and it took me forever to realize this was Breakside’s flagship IPA with fresh Cascades. I should have bought 5! This right here is what I’ve been waiting for, everything I want in a FH beer.

 

Opened Ft George's Strata Architect last night and, much like the can art, it's fantastic. I've never had strata quite like this before.

As an aside, there is an insane amount of strata around right now.

 

Urgent Bulletin: Fort George Fresh IPA is really good this year!



This is easily the best iteration of Fort George Fresh IPA I've tasted in 3 or 4 years. Bright, not too malty, light bodied, with really nice fresh hop character. Lots of peach, mango, and citrus, with a hint of diesel and a bitter bite in the finish.

 

Next up: Great Notion Fresh Hop Ripe. Not my usual thang, but this is fresh hop season, and some of y'all have said good things about this one.



If more hazies tasted like this, I'd drink 'em more often. Strong froot flavor from start to finish. Sweet, yes, but stops before it reaches "too sweet." Super tropical. Pungent fresh hop character: diesel, grass, underripe mango, weed.

Hop burps are just spectacular, and come
with a formidable radish-like burn.

Credit where credit's due: This is terrific.

 

Have you had their Fresh Hop Magnetic West? When it comes to fresh hops I prefer west coast over hazy. We just land at SEATac and waiting for our daughter to pick us up. Heading to Georgetown area for dinner. Going to stop in Full Throttle Bottle for some fresh hop cans to take back home. I saw Great Notion has FHMW cans in.

 

Really nice wet Zappa hopped hazy from Lumberbeard in collaboration with Whistle Punk.

Almost makes up for the fact that EWU, while keeping it close with Montana St, is really making things stressful.

 

Reuben's FH Hazealicious is quite tasty for a hazy fresh hop. Still not a great vehicle in my opinion, but enjoyable. Hoping to see FH Crikey this year.

 

After a disappointing FH yesterday and a disappointing game, I needed a win. Fremont delivers. Solid FH.





After 3 FH brews…

Gold Medal - Single Hill 5 Sisters
Silver Medal - Fremont F2F
Bronze Medal - BB’s Home Grown

 

Ex Novo's FH Perle Haggard has a nice, fragrant, lemony FH character. Definitely worthy, if a little rough.

 

FH Magnetic West was not on my radar, but I'll watch for it. Maybe take a quick bike ride over to the Beaverton location tomorrow.

I, too, prefer WC IPAs to hazies when it comes to fresh hops. And FH pale ales have been very good this year.

 

About to take a fresh hop nightcap out to the porch after visiting a friend's house for dinner.



The first sip proves that Bend Brewing Fresh Trop IPA is terrific once again this year.

 

Damn, how have I never had anything from Single Hill before this weekend? Had my second beer from them last night, their Moxee Milieu and it was fantastic. Just so saturated with fresh hop flavors. The Ruse hazy Clever Weather that followed it was tasty but was a no contest.

 

Last night, Mrs. vurt and I split one more fresh hop beer before calling it a night.



It was not a very tasty IPA, and had almost no fresh hop aroma or flavor. Not the worst FH beer of this season, but that's because it's going to take something impressive* to beat Space Flamingo for that honor.

(* And not the good kind of impressive.)

 

Just got home from our 24hr in&out visit to Seattle. Was able to make it to Georgetown area and after dinner at a very good mexican restaurant next door the daughter and I had time for a couple of pours at Full Throttle Bottle and FH cans to go. I just grabbed whatever looked interesting. Had FG fresh hop cans last year. The others I have no clue. Cheers!
and i love you forever and ever

 

this description of FH Ripe is spot on. Well done. I attribute this flavor profile to the cirtra maybe? Not a hop we see too much of in it FH form.

 

Sunday afternoon fresh hop summit at Vurt Manor! We're just finishing a can of Cascade Lakes Koosah Fresh Hop IPA with fresh Centennial hops.



Not a bad start. An old school NW IPA, malty and bitter, with enough fresh hop character through the middle and finish to be worthy of the fresh hop name.

 

The results from my Fresh Hop competition on Friday:

Fresh Hop Pale Ale or Hazy Fresh Hop Pale Ale
Gold- FRESH HOP FIEND PALE ALE
Stoup Brewing, Seattle, WA, United States of America

Silver- FRESH HOP CRUSHABLE
Reuben's Brews, Seattle, WA, United States of America

Bronze- BOLD THEORY
Haas Innovations Brewing, Yakima, WA, United States of America

Fresh Hop IPA
Gold- FIVE SISTERS
Single Hill Brewing, Yakima, WA, United States of America

Silver- CAPTAIN MO
Moonraker Brewing, Auburn, CA, United States of America

Bronze- VALLEY FRESH IPA
Varietal Beer Company, Sunnyside, WA, United States of America

Hazy Fresh Hop IPA
Gold- STRUT YOUR STRAT
Deschutes Brewery Portland Public House, Portland, OR, United States of America

Silver- FRESH HOP IT, DON'T DROP IT
StormBreaker Brewing, Portland, OR, United States of America

Bronze- WEST SEASON: SABRO
Ravenna Brewing Co, seattle, WA, United States of America

Fresh Hop Lager
Gold- OKTOBERFRESH
Zoiglhaus Brewing Company, Portland, OR, United States of America

Silver- WET HOP LAKE EFFECT
Cabin Creek, Georgetown, Colorado, United States of America

Bronze- CZECH ONE TWO
Pond Farm Brewing Company, San Rafael, California, United States of America

Fresh Hop Beer- Other Styles
Gold- FH MISSISSIPPI RED
StormBreaker Brewing, Portland, OR, United States of America

Silver- FRESH HOP TRIPLE DOUBLE
StormBreaker Brewing, Portland, OR, United States of America

Bronze- SABRO FRESH HOP ALE
Three Creeks Brewing Company, SISTERS, OR, United States of America

 

Next up: A somewhat costly fresh hop hazy IPA from Wander Brewing, Bellingham, WA.



Good as a hazy, and good as a fresh hop beer. Tangy citrus/tropical flavor from one end to the other, with a diesel/green pepper finish underpinned by an indistinct tropical fruit funk and noteworthy hop burps. Thumbs up from Mrs. vurt and I.

 

Dru Bru is one of those breweries you see around all the time, but I am not sure I ever actually picked up because my impression was generally that it's pretty skippable. Not 100% where that impression came from, but htat's what it's been.
Anyway, Fresh Hop Centennial from them that I picked up while I was snagging the rest of hte FH options at the co-op last week.



It's... eh, it's not the worst one I've had this season. It's not particularly great, but it's drinkable. It's a below average but not terrible IPA with a little flash burst of FH in the midst of an imbalanced swing between suddenly sweet and sharply bitter. As I drink down the glass, it does take on a more creamy character that kind of blends those aspects together better, and it transforms. It's still not my favourite, but my impression is improved (and as a follow up to a previous post, even the more pleasant phase of drinking it kind of reminds me why centennial isn't my favourite hop). Not one to seek out per se, but not necessarily one to avoid on principle either.

 

Next up was Fort George Fresh IPA, but I have no photo because Mrs. vurt and I were conversing most agreeably, and she was working on her current crochet project. Still a very tasty FH beer this season, which makes Mrs. vurt and I happy.

Now we're checking out Ruse Fresh Hop Solar Ships with fresh Centennial hops. Canned on 09/06, but still quite tasty. (Not tastier than this year's Ex Novo FH Eliot IPAs with fresh Centennials.)

 

Single Hill Five Sisters was my first FH beer. I felt it would be hard to beat. Good to see I was not the only one who thought highly of it.

 

Occidental Fresh Hop pilsner.
Huge Imperial Pint for $6

 

Wrapping up my fresh hop focused trip to Portland and Yakima and wanted to highlight my favorites.
The two Fort George's I had were both amazing, Rock Paper Chinook and Fresh IPA. RPC was probably the best I've had this year.

Bale Breaker's Piled High with fresh Simcoe was another winner (pic below). Crazy amount of FH character, bright and delicious. Bale Breakers whole setup is amazing with their outdoor patio surrounded by hops. The aroma of the patio was terrific and the taco stand there was some of the best we've had!

Had a number of fresh hop beers that exhibited this watermelon flavor a few people mentioned which was new to me and fun to experience. Fresh Perspective from Coldfire and 2 that I had at Single Hill that I don't recall the names of showed this. Separately, the Single Hill / Barley Brown's Collab was great as expected.

Lastly just want to give some props to Roscoe's. They had the most FH stacked taplist we saw anywhere in Portland and the service and food matched this. I wish this was my neighborhood bar.

 

Haven't seen it discussed here yet, so I'll report that Threshold Centennial Cold IPA is quite tasty. Great FH character, nicely bitter, and right on the WCIPA/IPL border, where a cold IPA should be.

 

Here's my update for the last week of tasting. I actually moved a couple around due to circumstantial side-by-side tasting. I suspect Single Hill's would all move up if I could do a direct comparison with them, but alas...
(bold is new or updated)
Super Tier

• 2022-09-17: Great Notion - Fresh Hop Ripe
• 2022-09-25: Fremont - Field to Ferment
• 2022-09-16: Breakside - Fresh Hop Trade Secrets
• 2022-09-18: Single Hill - Moxee Milieu
• 2022-09-25: Single Hill - Hop Truck Crossing - On the Road Again
• 2022-09-25: Binary - Fresh Stratagies

Quite Nice Tier

• 2022-09-22: Reuben’s Brews - Fresh Hop Hazealicious
• 2022-09-23: Bale Breaker - Home Grown Fresh Hop IPA
• 2022-09-23: Cloudburst - The Hop Aquatic
• 2022-09-10: Reuben’s - Crispy Freshy
• 2022-09-04: Fremont - Fiddlers Green Wet Hopped IPA
• 2022-09-17: Stoup - Fresh Hop Fiend Strata
• 2022-09-10: Single Hill - Rodeo 1: Von Ebert
• 2022-09-10: Single Hill - Rodeo 2: Wayfinder
• 2022-09-10: Single Hill - Rodeo 3: Gigantic
• 2022-09-20: Reuben’s - Fresh Hop Crushable (Pale Ale)
• 2022-09-07: Matchless - Farm Harvest Fresh Hop Ale

Pretty Good Tier

• 2022-09-19: Single Hill - Skyfinder
• 2022-09-18: Matchless - Easy Being Green
• 2022-09-17: Crux - Pert Near (McKenzie)
• 2022-09-21: Hellbent - Early Harvest Fresh Hop IPA
• 2022-09-17: Flying Lion - Fresh Hop Pale Ale (Amarillo)

Nope Tier

• 2022-08-28: Garden Path - The Wet Hopped Ship (Saison) (to be fair, it’s last year’s, but they re-released it)

 

Fresh Hop Ripe is really great. It was great last year also.
The brewers at Great Notion are super skilled

 

Ok this is excellent. Good example of a Fresh Hop pilsner.
Could drink this all day. Better than their original pilsner

 

Onto the next one.
I thought I remembered really liking this one last year, but looking back at my notes I was more ambivalent than that.
Burke-Gilman's Seems So Long Since We Walked in the Moonlight is a classic deep murkster. Very juicy. triple dry hopping. All that stuff. The FH gets kind of superseded by the juicy sweetness

 

So sad. I had a couple Reach Break beers a while ago. Maybe even before Covid and they were excellent.
By their website and this. Another Little Beast for me couda been a contenda

 

I used to live 5 min from Roscoes, now im on the other side of town.

I miss that place often

 

The food is ace too and if for some reason not feeling their menu - order up some solid sushi from Miyamoto and keep the Roscoe's beers flowing.

I am a 15 minute walk away these days. Love it.

 

Weekend notes....

Had the FG strata architect and FG Fresh IPA. both were very good, but the Strata Architect w/ Ghost Town brewing was better. very well done.

had a wolves and people strata FH saison. very refreshing and a nice FH flavor.

Stormbreaker Fresh Hop is strong in this one - WC FH IPA. very good FH flavor and another solid effort from stormbreaker. After my "quality over quantity" dig, i have had 3 in a row from them that have been good.

The Single Hill hazy FH IPA. another good hazy FH beer.

Machine House FH pale ale w/centennial. this tasted like hop soda. pretty fun beer to drink. low carbonation, and very little bitterness for a pale ale, but tons and tons of hop flavor. i liked it a lot