Fresh Hop Guide - Hood River

Don't you love the smell of fresh hops in the autumn?

Tomorrow is the Hood River edition of three roaming fresh hop festivals. It's the oldest, at six years, and possibly the most spacious. It will be a great opportunity to sample fresh hop ales and further refine your sense of what makes a good wet hop. Below is the official list of the beers pouring at the event (there are more, non-wet hop beers) and their associated wet hop(s).

Brewery______________Beer (Hop(s) Used)
Amnesia
______________Fresh Hoppalata (Liberty)
Astoria
______________Hoptimus 2.0″ (Cascade, Simcoe)
Big Horse
____________Vernon the Rabbit Slayer (Simcoe)
Big Horse
____________The Strange Hemp Ale (Experimental)
Bridgeport
___________Hop Harvest Ale (Chinook)
Cascade Lakes
________Fresh Hop Pale Ale (Santiam)
Deschutes
____________Fresh Hop Mirror Pond (Cascade)
Double Mountain
______Killer Green IPA (Brewer’s Gold)
Double Mountain
______Fresh Vienna (Mt Hood)
Ft George
____________Cohoperative Ale (Multi-hop)
Full Sail
____________Lupulin Ale (Crystal)
Full Sail
____________Lupulin Ale (Cascade)
Hopworks
_____________Sodbuster Pale Ale (Crystal)
Laurelwood
___________Hop Bale Pale Ale (Amarillo)
Laurelwood
___________Organic Goodness Pale (Organic Chinook)
Lucky Lab
____________The Mutt Ale (Multi-hop)
Lucky Lab
____________Das Moot Pilsner (Multi-hop)
MacTarnahan’s
________Fresh Hop MacTarnahans (Cascade)
New Old Lompoc
_______Harvest Man Red Ale (Crystal)
New Old Lompoc
_______Fresh Hop Crystal Wheat (Crystal)
Ninkasi
______________Nugg E. Fresh (Nugget)
Oakshire
_____________Fresh Hop Harvest Ale (Chinook)
Pelican
______________Elemental Ale (Sterling)
Rock Bottom
__________Hoodwinked (Mt. Hood)
Rock Bottom
__________Octoberfist (Hallertauer)
Rogue Ales
___________Chatoe Rogue (Revolution)
Sierra Nevada
________Harvest Ale (Cascade, Centennial)
Three Creeks
_________Santiam Harvest Farmhouse Ale (Santiam)
Upright
______________Fresh Hop of Bel Air (Liberty)
Walking Man
__________Fresh Hop IPA (Unknown)
Widmer Brothers
______Hopturnal Emission (Summit)

As a bonus, I've put together descriptions of the hops that will be used in the Hood River beers. They describe the hops as we know of them in normal use. But, as I've tried to document, how a hop behaves once it's dried is no indicator of what it will do wet. Brewers are starting to get a handle on this, and you can see that a certain group of hops have emerged as favorites. Looking through the list, you see lots of Cascade and Crystal.



I'd like to draw your attention especially to Laurelwood's Hop Bale Pale, which was brewed with wet Amarillo. Those of you with long memories will recall Full Sail's transcendent 2007 Lupulin, made with Amarillo. This is the first beer since that one I've seen with that hop (a proprietary, hard-to-get hop). Also note that there are no Willamette or Perle--hops we've seen in previous years.

Stay tuned, I got more fresh hop goodness on the way.