Hi all, Does anyone know of any common wet hop beers that can be bought at most good beverage distributors? Looking to pick something up and do not really know where to start. All of the wet hop beers I have had are from local breweries which do not bottle them. I believe Sierra Nevada makes some wet hop brews. Understand it may not be the best season for this type of beer. Thanks in advance for your help! Brian
Not the best season at all IPAs are best fresh, wet hopped beers even more-so. Closest suggestion would be Sierra Nevada's Celebration, a fresh hop ale. Might just be my all-time favorite beer. Mark your calender for April/May for the Sierra Nevada's Southern Hemisphere Harvest (fresh hop), and Sept/Oct for the wet hopped beers
The harvest series, was my lightbulb beer. It opened my eyes and I havent looked back sinxe haha! Northern hemisphere remains to this day the one beer I absolutely will buy a case of every time. I can drink it any time, it is just an absolute love affair with me haha. I think the use of the wet hops really really bring about a flavor profile that is unmatched in any other fresh or wet hop ipa. Again this is all my opinion and there are many other really really awesome wet hop brews, but none of them compare to northern hemisphere harvest, just imho.
Great divide puts out fresh hop every year. Thisyears batch was especially tasty. Deschutes does chasing freshies as well, and I believe ska brewing hoperation ivy is fresh hopped and fantastic. This years was heavy on the amarillo and really stood out from the crowd for me.
IMO Torpedo matches a wet hop beer much more than any other year-round IPA, but I agree. Still, I HAVE to recommend you try Founders Harvest if at all possible
I had one last night & liked it at least as much as I did as when I bought it fresh. In my experience, fresh/wet hop beers hold up better than most IPAs. I kept a Sierra Nevada Celebration around for almost a year to try it out with some age (since I'd heard of some people doing verticals & drinking vintages of it) & it was still pretty enjoyable. Drank better than most IPAs I'd had with just a few months on them.
So is a wet hop ale the same as a fresh hop ale? Or, are all wet hop ales fresh hop ales, but fresh hop ales are not necessarily wet hop ales? Thanks in advance!
For many, but not all, brewers. The major except is Sierra Nevada, which uses "fresh" in the traditional sense... Here's their explanation (from their Celebration Ale page): Wet Hop versus Fresh Hop Over recent years, there has been some confusion about the difference between fresh and wet hops. While it may seem like semantics, to us it’s an important distinction. Wet Hops are un-dried hops, picked and shipped from the growing fields within 24 hours. Fresh Hops are the freshest dried hops to come from the fields, typically within seven days of harvest. Over 90% of the world’s hop harvest happens between August 31 and October 31, and these hops are used throughout the calendar year. Can hops possibly be the same on November 1, one day after harvest, as they are on July 25, nearly one year after growing in the fields? The answer is no. We think of hops like dry kitchen spices—the flavor of thyme or rosemary right after the jar is opened is far more intense than it is six months later. The same can be said for hops. There are ways to control the way hops age and to reformulate and readjust as some of the aromas fade, but there’s nothing like the magic of the first bales of hops as fresh as can be. That is the stuff dreams are made of! Traditionally, in the brewing and hop growing industries, the terms "raw" or "green" or "uncured" would have been used for what modern brewers are calling undried "wet" hops.
I posted this on another thread quite recently; I first had some about 15 years ago , called Hop Nouvelle. It was brewed by a hopgrower to showcase his product using single varieties.All hops in the brew were less that an hour from picking and being cask rather than bottled or kegged it was fresh like nothing else can be. THE HOPS NOUVELLE 4.1% ABV EARLYBIRD GOLDINGS FUGGLES NORTHDOWN MATHON GOLDINGS CHALLENGER Our green hop beers. 5 single hop varietal beers brewed during hop harvesting using un-kilned hops. These fresh hops are pitched to the boiling beer within an hour of picking to make more flavour and aroma available to the beer. All 5 are exceptionally pale and feature the hops prominently
I just drank a few Harvest bottles that were bottled on oct 2 of 2013. Very good. Very tasty. I am trying to buy more. Whole Foods still has a ton on 19.
Wet hopped beers should be consumed in the fall season. This is when the hops are harvested and used before they are dried. Any wet hopped beers that are still available may be good, but the hop profile has probably faded. Lakefront Brewery has a wet hopped lager that is outstanding fresh. I still see it on the shelves. I should try one now to see how it holds up. There is always confusion between wet and fresh hop beer. Thank you @jesskidden for your informative post.
But Celebration is not a "wet hop" ale, it's a "fresh hop" ale for which Sierra Nevada uses "... the freshest dried hops to come from the fields, typically within seven days of harvest." (I swear I just read that someplace else, too....)
