Why should Oregon and Washington have all the fun? Who in California is pouring freshly hopped beer? Last year I caught the tail end of fresh hop season, almost quite literally. I was pleasantly surprised to find a FH beer at Narrative Fermentations in San Jose (mid-September) and some goodies from Ghost Town. I also finished off either the last of Cellarmaker's FH Timeland on draft, or else it was just the last pour of the evening I happened to be there. Quality, not quantity!
Great Notion shared their release schedule recently. Not CA based but will be available up north. Down south Green Cheek got their strata hops today and said their fh beer is 3 weeks away.
I was thinking there should be a CA thread this year, I’ve seen posts from a few places already about their FH releases being in the works.
Sante Adairius has one in the works. Not sure what kind exactly. They brewed with hops last Tuesday that had been picked that same day. From Anderson Valley. Russian River has one brewing also. Ghost Town has traditionally done a strata one called Scissor Hash every year.
Did North Park release their wet hop Strata Rocket last year, 2024? I know I didn’t get any last year. Looking at Untappd I don’t see any from 2024 or 2023. I know I got their 21/22 Strata Rocket cans. They usually release one of the first wet hops in CA. RiiP’s Wet Stratocaster should be released around the same time as Cheeky’s ASAP. When does SN’s Celebration Wet Hop release? Sometime in October?
SN does a wet hop version of celebration? I think this is the first I've heard of that. I know they label their celebration ipa as a fresh hop beer, but I've never heard them call it a wet hop beer.
We received our Coleman Strata order last Tuesday via Indie Hops, and our Coleman Chinook order today via the same source. So, Strata Rocket is making a comeback, and we'll release something new with the Chinook.
If you have a chance (and if you're interested), take a look at their website. SN seems to acknowledge that wet hopping and "fresh hop" are not synonymous terms. Their definition of fresh hop (for the celebration ipa) looks to be freshly dry kilned hops, which is not the same as wet hopping. In the PNW the terms are synonymous. Fresh hop and wet hopping are interchangeable. I don't believe SN sees it that way. Regardless, my understanding is that celebration ipa is not a wet hop beer. I believe the only wet hop beers SN makes these days are their harvest ales, which I gather can only be obtained at the brewery (or you can have them shipped). At least that's my understanding.
Jess Kidden has posted a lot over the years how “fresh hop“ is a long used beer industry term for beer made with the first dried hops of the season. Wet or green hopping is a newer technique of using undried hops, usually within 24 hours of harvest. You are correct, Sierra Nevada’s Northern and Southern hemisphere harvest ales are wet hopped beers, so they make both wet and fresh hop ales. I think that some of their estate beers also use wet hops grown on brewery grounds.
@unlikelyspiderperson loved this debate. (Haven’t seen your posts in a while. Hope you’re ok and having a few in the Spidey-verse!)
Yes. Yet to the best of my knowledge, SN is the only brewery that puts the words fresh hop on their label when the hop contents aren't wet hopped. Check me on that, but I think this is the case. Also, prior to 2010, SN didn't use the expression on their label either. After the fact, SN has now stated that they always used "fresh hops" in their celebration ale, despite the lack of a label descriptor prior to 2010. My take is that this smacks of a marketing decision, as opposed to an attempt to bring greater clarity and accuracy to the description of the bottle/can contents. Jesskidden's historical observations notwithstanding (which I've no doubt are accurate), industry terminology can and does change over time. I would argue that outside of SN, the current industry terminology is more consistent with the brewery trend in the PNW. In Oregon, Washington and most of California, the two terms are synonymous (fresh hop/wet hop). That being said, this is all just my opinion, based largely on current, local observation. However, I think it unfortunate that SN has decided not to embrace the more modern definition, which I think only leads to greater confusion and misunderstanding (as the original post from @dcgunman tends to demonstrate). In the end though, SN can do whatever they want. It's not going to stop me from buying celebration ipa when it's released again in a few weeks. Cheers!
JW Lee’s states that their Harvest Ale uses freshly harvested hops and barley although when I just looked it up they seem to use “first” and “fresh” hops interchangeably. I like that SN revived an old tradition of advertising that a certain beer uses the first hops of the season, hops that were dried yesterday are going to taste different than hops that were dried a year ago, so why not promote it? Most pepeople on BA seem to agree with you that SN shouldn’t use the term “fresh hops”, some people even get angry about it, but for me, I like the nuance of having two separate terms.
Finally had the time to sit down and read this very informative article. So some of the breweries are receiving fresh hop and brewing within 24hrs and calling it wet hop, but really it’s fresh. I’ll be on the lookout for Hemisphere wet hop in a couple of weeks. Thx again.
Some breweries to look for fresh hop beers. Mother Earth from Farm to Kettle fresh hop ipa Radiant The Time Is Now, usually the later part of September. Green Cheek, ASAP RiiP Wet Stratacaster (wet must be referring to fresh) North Parks Strata Rocket plus one. Lagunitas Born Yesterday feel free to add to this list if you know other breweries in your area that will be releasing fresh hop beers for 2025. The Northwest forum is blowing up right now. for those who must… https://getbeerfridge.com/products/...Jqg-htF2YH8eGu0elMMk00UUZQInch4XsPlAU8PCOh22V
Pizzaport just posted fresh hops and said "Wet Lamborghini" was getting brewed. For a few years there was a fresh hop collab between PP and Burgeon called NugOWar. Burgeon posted they will have fresh hop beer releases Sept 26th but no mention of names.
