Hoppy (fresh hop) fall!

For better or for worse, my beer tasting and consumption has been much more consistent (and ok, fine, plentiful) than my upkeep of this blog in 2016. Truly, I've meant to update it every once and awhile (eg, "Ohhhh, this Skookum Billing Waves IPA is sooooo good - I really should write about it the beer blog" "Hotline Bling? Can Cloudburst do any wrong?"), but inevitably, something else would distract me ("What - a GSP puppy - WHERE?!") and/or usurp my occasional bouts of free time (it might rhyme with Smogal Durban of Gisease).

I may or may not have run after this adorable GSP puppy on Cannon Beach.

Three things have prompted the return of the beer blog:

(1) The pace at work has slowed down for a few beats.

(2) Our new Director of Research Management asked me about my beer blog on his first day.

(3) It's FRESH HOP SEASON, the most wonderful time of the year in the PNW.

Yes, I've pre-ordered 12 bottles of Reuben's Amarillo Fresh Hop Pale Ale, my most favorite of Seattle-based fresh hops to date. I'd like to hit up the Latona Pub's Fresh Hop Festival on Thursday (and then of course the Pine Box and Brouwer's respective fresh hop events in early October). Fresh hoppity-hop-hops - oh how I love thee.

So what exactly is fresh hop beer? Outside of the PNW, it's not a term that one frequently encounters - I certainly didn't know about it until I moved to Seattle. I'm sure there's a much more technical definition of "fresh hop beer" that the true gurus of brew would give you - I will never claim such knowledge or expertise - but in sum, what makes a "fresh hop" beer fresh and hoppilicious is that a bunch of hops picked directly from the vine are used in the brewing process without additional drying or processing. Apparently there's a "24-hour rule" for fresh hops, such that the "fresh hop" title only should bestowed upon an ale if the hops used have spent less than 24 hours off the hop vine. Apparently fresh hops can be a bit wild and unwieldy for brewers (a Washington Beer blog article I read is super helpful in describing some of the challenges associate with fresh hops), but if done right, you get this amazingly delightful, bursting-with-flavor, and yes - FRESH - beer that makes your tastebuds want to do a hoppy dance. 

Fremont Brewing, one of my all-time favorite breweries, has introduced a really cool program this year, Field to Ferment. I've thoroughly enjoyed comparing the differences between the Centennial and Simcoe fresh hops thus far, and I look forward to sampling the Citra and Mosaic (though I fear I've missed the Citra this week). Amarillo remains my favorite hop (I think), but who knows what this fresh hop season will bring...

Cheers,

N