When looking at seasonal beers, there might be nothing that defines the term more than fresh hop beers.
Not only do they only come out during a specific time of year, but if you don’t drink them quickly, they start to lose their mojo.
It’s almost impossible to get that uber-fresh hop flavor and aroma other than the first few months right after the hop harvest, which occurs from late-August through September.
“The fresh hops start to deteriorate and lose their qualities almost 24 hours after picking,” said Alan Miller, head brewer and owner at Boneshire Brew Works. “You have to get them in the beer as soon as possible if you want that freshness.”
For local brewers, it’s a bonus that Sunny Brae Hops is just a short drive down 81, and Adam and Diana Dellinger have the capabilities to provide hops to many local breweries.
“Adam is the best in the area,” said Theo Armstrong, head brewer and co-owner at ZerØday Brewing Co. “He has the quantity to support local brewers, and he’s always great to work with.”
In 2018, Sunny Brae provided 14 local breweries with fresh hops for their seasonal fresh hop brews.
What’s a fresh hop?
A fresh hop is just that, a hop cone picked right off the bine with no other treatment done to it.
Imagine picking basil from your herb garden and using it in a dish just minutes later. That’s the basic idea.
Fresh hops also offer different flavors and aromas compared to their pelletized or dried counterparts.
“You get a lot of greener, grassier, and brighter notes when using fresh hops,” said Miller. “You’ll also get pine, fresh citrus, and lemon in the flavor.”
Fresh hop beers aren’t used for their bittering, either. Their primary use is imparting those fresh flavors and pungent aromas.
“For me, when I taste a certain type of vegetal character as a result of a wet hop addition, it adds a smoothness to the beer that makes it very easy to drink,” said Dellinger. “It’s a flavor profile you only get to experience once a year, which makes it even more special.”
Prepping for harvest
Since hops are such an important part to a quality beer, Dellinger is constantly out in the fields in the months leading up to the harvest.
Dellinger said testing for hop-maturity is complicated, but one of the main tests hop farmers have to do is a sensory evaluation that involves all senses except for taste to predict the ideal harvest day.
Other preparation at Sunny Brae entails maintenance on all equipment so they can run non-stop through the harvest, working with brewers to finalize schedules, and making sure they keep the crop as healthy as possible throughout the harvest.
“Our yield this year was about 25 percent less than last year, which was disappointing,” said Dellinger. “Simply put, we were battling Mother Nature this year.”
From the long, cool, and wet spring to dealing with heat, pests, and flooding, Dellinger said it was a year of full of new challenges.
“The four or so weeks of extremely hot and dry weather mid-season brought us additional pest pressure that we have not experience on the farm yet, which had a large impact, especially on Cascade,” said Dellinger.
Despite all of that, Sunny Brae still managed to support more than a dozen local breweries with fresh hops this season, and we’re all the beneficiary.
Brewing with fresh hops
While drinking fresh hop beers is enjoyable, brewing them does pose some difficulties.
“Because you have to use the hops within such a short period, you need to schedule that into your brew schedule,” said Armstrong. “You have to plan with the farmer at the point when they are picked to when they will arrive at your brewery.”
It’s not only about when the hops are going to arrive, but it’s the usage as well.
Since the hops are so fresh, it’s hard to determine what exact flavor you’re going to get out of them. Brewers look for specific notes in hops, and with fresh hops, it’s hard to tell which flavor and aromas are going to dominate the current crop.
“We always strive for consistency in our beers, but you don’t know what you’re going to get with them coming right off the bine,” said Armstrong.
Flavors in fresh hops can be more volatile or subdued. For that reason, recipe development and when to use the hops while brewing also poses difficulties as well.
Recipe development and logistics
Both Miller and Armstrong used their fresh hops post-boil. Meaning, they weren’t trying to extract bitterness from the hops, but just flavor and aroma.
“The hops still have the green chlorophyll in them, and you need to work not to pull out that flavor,” said Miller. “We put ours in post-boil and steeped them for about 30 minutes, any longer, and you can start to pull out unintended flavors.”
When ZerØday started the plan for this year’s recipe, they knew he had to have a sturdier hop backbone to make the beer more stable.
“We developed our recipe knowing that those fresh flavors are going to drop out,” said Armstrong. “We used Chinook and Cascade fresh hops, but also used pelletized hops of the same variety to help it hold the flavor.”
Pelletized hops are more concentrated in their flavor than fresh hops, which adds that extra stability to the beer.
Fresh hop beer roundup
Fresh hop beers are here and gone before you know it. These beers are the ones I look forward to trying every fall.
Fresh, smooth, piney, resinous goodness is what I crave and here are some of my favorites from this year so far.
Financial Panther V3 – ZerØday Brewing Co.
ZerØday took their NEIPA and pumped it full of fresh Sunny Brae Chinook, and Cascade hops for zesty citrus, tropical flavors and a slight grassy note imparted by the fresh hops.
They even took it to the next level by putting the beer on Nitro for a smooth-drinking IPA with low bitterness.
Fresh Hop IPA (Chinook) – Boneshire Brew Works
Miller said Boneshire steeped their hops in the wort for 30 minutes to pull as much flavor and aroma out of the beer as possible. It has a zip of pine from Sunny Brae Chinook hops with a pungent herbal aroma.
Boneshire also added pelletized Columbus hops that impart floral and citrus notes.
Cascade Fresh Hop – Ever Grain Brewing Co.
Bright, light and a bit herbaceous are the ways I would describe Ever Grain’s fresh hop offering. They were lucky to get some Cascade from Sunny Brae, and this IPA is bursting with notes of fresh cut grass and citrus notes.
Fresh Hop Session IPA – Millworks Brewery
Anyone who knows me, knows I love a session IPA. When you take a session IPA and add in fresh hops, you have me hook, line, and sinker.
Millworks used Sunny Brae Chinook and Cascade as well, and the hop character shines in this 4.9% ABV session IPA with notes of lemon, pine, and earthy undertones. The Millworks took drinking local to the next level by using Double Eagle Malt to make this beer PA Preferred.
Scratch #348 Fresh Hop Ale with Comet – Tröegs Independent Brewing
This is the first of multiple fresh hop beers to come out of the Tröegs scratch series. This one uses Comet hops form Sunny Brae for notes of pineapple, citrus zest, and bright herbal flavors.
In addition to the Sunny Brae beer, Tröegs also flies in fresh hop all the way from the Yakima Valley, America’s hop Mecca, and brews with them in under 24 hours.
What are your favorite local fresh hop beers?
