Fresh hop ales
So, for the first time I tried a couple of “fresh hop” or “wet hopped” ales. To understand what this means, you first have to understand a little bit about how beer is normally brewed, so bear with me for a little bit. Hops, the ingredient that gives beer a bitter/piney/citrusy flavor, depending on the variety, are usually harvested in early September and are quite perishable. Generally they’re dried and pressed to prevent spoilage, so the vast majority of the beer you drink has been brewed using dried hops.
When the hops are sapped of their moisture, they also lose essential oils and resins, and quite a lot of them (I read a statistic somewhere saying that fresh hops are 60 percent water). So some breweries go to great lengths to brew a special “wet hopped,” limited edition “harvest beer” right at harvest time, using hops that haven’t yet been dried. Often this means either having fresh hops shipped in overnight, or brewing on harvest day, for breweries that have their own hop fields (like Sierra Nevada). All of this can serve to drive up the price of wet hopped brews, but many aficionados will pay a price premium for freshness, like someone else might for vegetables at a farmer’s market.
I actually am not a huge fan of IPAs — a handful I love, most I can do without — but I’d been told that fresh hops often impart more hop aroma and earthy flavors, without all the bitterness, so I decided to give a couple a shot.
With that brief explainer, on to a couple of my first tastings. I started off with one of Harpoon’s 100-barrel series, the ‘09 Glacier Harvest Wet Hop Ale. It pours a clear, brassy amber with a thin tan head that fades quickly to a cap. Rather low carbonation on this one. Subtle nose, all grassy and earthy hop smells that dominate what aroma there is. This one drinks very mellow and slick, slight piney hop tingle along the sides of the tongue with a surprising little sweet malty kick at the finish, and a lingering malty crispness. Not easy to categorize. Mellow yet flavorful, overall a pleasing beer that’s pretty easy to drink.
I then moved to Sierra Nevada’s Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale. This is really intended to be a springtime fresh hop ale, because they import fresh hops up from New Zealand. So I probably didn’t consume it at its freshest, and my review should be read in that light. Pours a hazy light tea-colored brew with a thick, frothy head. Wow, this one delivers a nose full of piney, grassy hop aromas. Aggressive nose on this one. On the drink, the Sierra delivers an initial hop blast that’s really pronounced, and yet not bitter or unpleasant. The hop blast fades on the tongue to be replaced with a warming malt flavor that would make for a really nice finish if it wasn’t immediately socked by a sourish resiny aftertaste. Medium bodied. Pretty easy to drink, and I love the start and midpoint of the quaff, but the finish is pretty offputting. Of the two I enjoyed Harpoon’s take more.
This evening after work I went down the street to