What’s the deal with Fresh Hop Beers?

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dry hop vs fresh hop, dry hop vs wet hop, Fallbrook Estate Pale Ale, fresh hop, Get Wet IPA, High Tide Fresh Hop IPA, Low Tide Fresh Hop Pale Ale, Schooner Fresh Hop Ale 2011, Wet Coaster, wet hop

As we head into Fall here in San Diego the leaves might not change much, but the beers available on beer shelves around the county sure do. Gone are the lighter summer seasonals and out come the darker beers that are more fitting for the Fall season including: Oktoberfest/Märzen and pumpkin pie spiced beers. But there’s one group of beers that comes out in the fall out of necessity, there’s a short window at the end of summer and beginning of Fall these beers can be brewed, these are fresh hop, or sometimes called wet hop beers.

Hop Pellets

To understand the fresh hop beers you have to understand hop production. Hops are an herb that are harvested once per year at the end of summer (technically hops are harvested twice per year, once in the Northern Hemisphere and once in the Southern Hemisphere, but we’re going to ignore the Southern Hemisphere for the sake of explanation). Once harvested hops are delicate and must be used in their fresh form very quickly (which is why not many Northern Hemisphere brewers make fresh hop beers with Southern Hemisphere hops, although Sierra Nevada has done it). In order to brew beer year round most of the hops harvested are dried and formed into pellets or plugs, this allows them to last longer. The vast majority of beers are made with these dried hop pellets.

Fresh hop beers are often Pale Ales or IPAs, but typically not as bitter as their more common counterparts made with dried hops in order to better showcase the fresh hops which can often be more bright and fragrant. Depending upon the hop variety used the beers can showcase more herbal, floral, grassy and even fruity characteristics. It can be hard to describe and sounds kind of silly, but often compared to traditional beers made with hop pellets these beers just taste more fresh.

Fresh Hops

Locally there are a handful of breweries making fresh hop beers. Port Brewing Company released Fallbrook Estate Pale Ale a few weeks ago, made entirely with hops grown in North County. This one is pretty limited and is draft only and available only at the brewery, it’ll go quick (if it isn’t gone already).

Port Brewing Company also produces High Tide an IPA every year. This one does make its way into bottles and hits distribution so it should be easier to find. Check out pictures of Port’s Tomme Arthur’s trip to Yakima, Washington to pick out the hops for this year’s batch.

Ballast Point releases their Schooner Fresh Hop Ale 2011 today. It’s a 5.4% ABV American Pale Ale that is only available on draft. It will be at both Ballast Point locations until it runs out, I’m not sure if they’ll be sending kegs out to other bars and restaurants.

Hess Brewing Company brewed two fresh hop beers this year, both called Wet Coaster IPA. One uses Centennial and Amarillo hops while the other is a single hop brew using only Crystal hops. The first version was released last week, no word on if they have any left or not as for today (9/22) Hess still has some of the Centennial and Amarillo hopped version of Wet Coaster available, and they’re planning on releasing the second all Crystal version tomorrow. Hess brews in small batches so check with them before hand to see if it’s available before making a special trip.

The Pizza Port brewpubs often brew fresh hop beers. Get Wet IPA is at Pizza Port Ocean Beach, Low Tide a Pale Ale is at Pizza Port Solana Beach and Plant to Pint made with fresh Centennial, Cascade, Amarillo, and Simcoe is available at Pizza Port Carlsbad.

Fresh hop beers from Sierra Nevada, Great Divide and others usually make their way to San Diego in bottles, just make sure to drink them fresh like they’re intended to be had!

A note about the term “wet hop” and the process of “dry hopping” beers. Dry hopping means adding hops (in any form, fresh, dry, pellets, etc) to the beer after the boil while it is fermenting. This is done to add hop aroma. The term wet hop typically just refers to beers made with fresh hops. A fresh hop beer can be “dry hopped” with fresh hops, and some brewers choose to use the term “wet hop” instead of “fresh hop”. Kinda confusing ain’t it?

Got any questions about fresh hop beers? Leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to answer them.

Images used under Creative Commons license. Fresh hops: _Dekan_, Hop Pellets: epicbeer

Updated 9/22/2011 at 4:07pm

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Great Divide Rumble Oak Aged India Pale Ale

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great divide Rumble Oak Aged India Pale Ale, Rumble Oak Aged India Pale Ale, rumble oak aged ipa

I haven’t had many oak aged IPA’s so it was my lack of experience with the style combined with my love for Great Divide that caused me to pick up Rumble Oak Aged India Pale Ale (typically sold in 6 packs, I picked up this single 12oz bottle at Bottlecraft for $1.95).

According to Great Divide’s website, Rumble is an American IPA brewed with Pacific Northwest hops and aged on French and American oak (but there’s no mention of how long it is aged). It’s listed as 7.1% ABV and the IBUs aren’t listed.

Rumble is darker in color and sweeter in both smell and taste than many American IPAs. That’s not to say that it isn’t a solid beer however. Pretty much everything one would expect from an oak aged American IPA makes an appearance. Earthy oak, hints of vanilla and sweet caramel are front and center which all give way to a more bitter finish full of piney hops. The carbonation was lower than I expected, but certainly wasn’t flat and didn’t get in the way of my enjoyment of the beer.

I was afraid this beer could be too malty and sweet but even as it warmed up it didn’t become overly sweet and was still pleasant to drink. I don’t have much to compare it to, but this is a great example of what I would expect from and oak aged American IPA.

San Diego Beer Events, January 27th- February 2nd

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22nd Anniversary Vanilla Imperial Stout, automatic coffee imperial brown ale, Belgica Belgian Ale, Bloody Larry, Chipotle-Cocoa Nib version of Black Marlin, Claymore Scotch Ale, Compunction, Consecration, Damnation, Dried Guajillo Calico, Espresso Yeti Imperial Stout, firkin friday, Fresh Hop Pale Ale, Habanero Sculpin, Hades Belgian Pale Ale, Hercules IIPA, Hibernation Old Ale, jolly pumpkin, jolly pumpkin flights, karl strauss 22nd anniversary vanilla imperial stout, karl strauss changing of the barrels, miho gastrotruck, Mortification, o'brien's russian river consumpTION, Oaked Yeti Imperial Stout, Old Ruffian Barleywine, Perdition, redemption, Rejection, Roasted Pasilla Yellowtail, salvation, samuel smith brewery, Sanctification, smoked baltic porter, Supplication, Temptation, titan ipa, toronado pint night, toronado san diego pint night, yeti imperial stout

If you know of anything that isn’t on our events calendar, please email events@sandiegobeerblog.com to get it added.

Thursday, Jan 27:

Homebrew Mart (Ballast Point’s Linda Vista operation) is teaming up with MIHO Gastrotruck for a casual beer pairing dinner with a focus on chili beers. Ballast Point has infused five of their beers with chili peppers: Chipotle-Cocoa Nib version of Black Marlin, Roasted Pasilla Yellowtail, Dried Guajillo Calico, Habanero Sculpin and Bloody Larry (BP Bloody Mary Mix and Abandon Ship Smoked Lager) and they’ll make recommendations for food to pair with it. Fiji Yogurt next door will have a Mango Lime Thai Chili yogurt with Ballast Point beer. Tasters will be $1 and food prices will vary.

Friday, Jan 28:

Iron Fist Brewing Company (I’m not sure, do they still hold the distinction of being San Diego County’s  newest brewery?) has come a long way in a few short months. They’ll be at Hamilton’s Tavern for Firkin Friday with a special cask of an IPA/Belgian-style brew aged in white wine barrels with Brett. They’ll also have plenty of their other beers on draft.

Saturday, Jan 29:

It’s Russian River ConsumpTION weekend at O’Brien’s. They’ll have 17 Russian River beers on tap including 11 Belgian-style “TION” beers. They’ll have: Damnation, Salvation, Supplication, Temptation, Consecration, Perdition, Sanctification, Mortification, Compunction, Redemption and Rejection along with all the hoppy beers Russian River is also known for. They have full kegs of all the beers so they expect them to last throughout the weekend.

KNB Wine Cellars is featuring Great Divide Brewing Co. Saturday night. They’ll have Yeti Imperial Stout, Oaked Yeti Imperial Stout, Espresso Yeti Imperial Stout, Old Ruffian Barleywine, Hades Belgian Pale Ale, Hibernation Old Ale, Smoked Baltic Porter, Titan IPA, Hercules IIPA, Fresh Hop Pale Ale, Claymore Scotch Ale and Belgica Belgian Ale all on tap.

Sunday, Jan 30:

Automatic Brewing Co. (the brewery housed at Blind Lady Ale House) will be unveiling their latest beer Sunday morning for BLAH’s 2nd Anniversary. This Coffee Imperial Brown Ale comes in around 8.3% and is damn good (I got a sneak peak last weekend). For the first time they will be offering a limited amount of growlers, which are being pre-sold through Brown Paper Tickets. They’ll also be doing Jolly Pumpkin tasting flights that afternoon. (BLAH is having special events throughout the weekend, click here for more info on the rest of the events).

Monday, Jan 31:

Monday again which means local pint night at Toronado. $3 pours on all local beers.

Tuesday, Feb 1:

Throughout the month of February Eleven, Hamilton’s Tavern and Small Bar will be showcasing the beers of Samuel Smith Brewery. And they’re kicking things off with some glass giveaways to the first 25 people to buy a bottle. They’ll have different bottles at each of the bars throughout the month for $5 for 18oz.

Wednesday, Feb 2:

Karl Strauss is celebrating their 22nd Anniversary with a party to show off their 22nd Anniversary Vanilla Imperial Stout in it’s full barrel-aged form. Tickets are $50 which gets you tasters of 100% barrel aged 22nd Anniversary (the regular release will be blended with fresh beer) as well as a taste of the 23rd Anniversary beer before it goes into barrels. They’ll have food, live music and send you home with a bottle of the 22nd Anniversary Vanilla Imperial Stout and a commemorative snifter. Buy tickets in advance at the Karl Strauss website. They’re only selling sixty so this will probably sell out.

San Diego Beer Events 10/21-10/27

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10-10-10 vertical epic, craft beer with the expert, Crossbreed Blonde Ale, Double Dry Hopped 14th Anniversary Ale, festivus, firkin friday, Fleabite English Pale Ale, great divide fresh hop pale ale, Imperial Russian Belgo Stout, Imperial Russian Stout 10th Anniversary Special Blend, lee chase park 2 park, oak aged yeti, oktoberhess, pariah ipa, park2park, san diego beer events, san diego oktoberfest, sd park 2 park, Sighthound Stout, Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans, travis smith

Since most beer events happen on the weekends, we thought we would post weekly beer event roundups on Thursdays. But we’re not just focusing on the weekends, listings will highlight beer events throughout the week. Make sure to see the full calendar below or click over to our Events page to see more beer events.

Got an event coming up you would like to see listed? Email us at events@sandiegobeerblog.com

Thursday, Oct 21:

Great Divide Brewing Co. night at Toronado – Five beers from Great Divide including their limited release Fresh Hop Pale Ale and Oak Aged Yeti (not to be confused with Espresso Oak Aged Yeti)

Friday, Oct 22:

Celebration of Change at La Jolla Brew House – La Jolla Brewhouse has hired a new brewmaster, Travis Smith previously with The Bruery and Russian River Brewing Company and is putting a focus back on beer. They’ll be sampling the new house brews, Sighthound Stout, Fleabite English Pale Ale, Crossbreed Blonde Ale and Pariah IPA.

Firkin Friday with Stone Brewing Co. at Hamilton’s Tavern – They’ll have the new 10-10-10 Vertical Epic on cask as well as Double Dry Hopped 14th Anniversary Ale, Imperial Russian Stout 10th Anniversary Special Blend, Imperial Russian Belgo Stout and Smoked Porter with Vanilla Beans on draft.

Saturday, Oct 23:

OktoberHess at Hess Brewing Co. – They’ll have German food and plenty of great beer including their German style Alt Bier, Festivus.

Craft Beer with the Expert – Park2Park Shuttle will pick you up at one of their designated stops and take you to Blind Lady Ale House for a guided beer tasting with Blind Lady co-owner and Automatic Brewing Co. brewer Lee Chase. Pizza will be served and then it’s back on the bus to Home Brews and Gardens for a homebrew demonstration.

Sunday, Oct 24:

The O’Brien’s Pub Wet Hop Festival has been going on all weekend and Tom Nickel of O’Brien’s expects most if not all of the kegged beers to still be on tap when they open Sunday morning. Throughout the weekend they’ll have over 15 different wet hopped beers on tap.

Monday, Oct 25:

Toronado Local Pint Night – Every Monday night is local night at Toronado. All San Diego County beers are just $3.

Tuesday, Oct 26 and Wednesday Oct 27

We couldn’t find any notable beer events, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any happening. If you know of anything going on, email us at events@sandiegobeerblog.com

Great Divide Brewing Co. Coming to San Diego

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38 degrees, beachwood bbq, blue palms, brian dunn, espresso oak ages yeti imperial stout, farmer's harvest, great divide brewing co los angeles, great divide brewing co san diego, great divide brewing company los angeles, great divide brewing company san diego, great divide brewing company southern california, great divide san diego, hades, hercules double ipa, hibernation ale, old ruffian, smoked baltic porter, titan ipa, whole foods tustin, yeti imperial stout

Great Divide Brewing Co. is one of my favorite Colorado breweries that doesn’t get distributed in California, but that’s about to change next week. Stone will be distributing Great Divide in San Diego and they’re hosting kick off parties at bars and restaurants throughout Southern California next week. Great Divide’s founder Brian Dunn will be on hand at some of the releases in addition to the many delicious Great Divide beers.

Wednesday September 29th they’ll kick things off at KNB Wine Cellars in Del Cerro from 5-8pm. They’ll have an awesome line of Great Divide beers, on tap will be: Titan IPA, Hercules Double IPA, Yeti Imperial Stout, Hibernation Old Ale, Smoked Baltic Porter, Hades Stong Belgian Pale Ale. All of those minus Hades will be available in bottles (either 12oz six packs or 22oz bombers) and they’ll also have bombers of Old Ruffian Barley Wine and Espresso Oak Aged Yeti.

The next night, Thursday September 30th, they’ll be up north at Churchill’s Pub and Urge Gastropub with many of the same beers on draft.

Friday, October 1st Blind Lady Ale House, The Tap Room and possibly Neighborhood will be hosting and tapping some Great Divide Beers.

Saturday, October 2nd they’ll finish things out at Pizza Port in both Ocean Beach and Carlsbad.

For you LA folks, it looks like they’ll be at Blue Palms for a lunch event Wednesday Sept 29th. Thursday they’ll be at Farmer’s Harvest and Beachwood BBQ. Friday October 1st they’ll be at Whole Foods in Tustin and Saturday they’ll stop by 38 Degrees.

All the events are subject to change, please check with the individual establishments to confirm times.

Stone Brewing Co. 14th Anniversary Festival Mini Reviews

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Belgo Imperial Russian Stout, Black Raspberry Nectar, Colette Farmhouse Ale, Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout, fireworks saison, great divide san diego, great divide socal, great divide southern california, Hop Diego, hop-it, Imperial Russian Stout 10th Anniversary Blend, La Granja Coffee Stout, lost abbey tea, mike's beer cheese, Modus Hoperandi ipa, nogne o saison, norrebro, Red Stone Meadery, Smoked Porter with Chipotle Peppers, stone brewing co. 14th anniversary, traditional experimental ale, triple white sage

The Stone Brewing Co. 14th Anniversary Celebration and Invitational Beer Festival came and went this weekend, and plenty of great beer was consumed. The festival itself seemed fairly well organized, I heard many people complaining about long lines and the lack of shade, but we never waited more than two or three minutes for a beer, nor did we have any problem finding a place to sit or stand under the large tents. It was warm but not nearly as warm as it could have been in San Marcos in August.

We opted for Session A, arriving at exactly 11am, we got our glasses and wristbands without a wait and were drinking our first beers just a few minutes later. As far as I could tell everyone in attendance was having a great time. Mike’s Beer Cheese was a crowd pleaser for sure. We tried all four varieties offered with Napalm Bastard being the favorite.

Below are short notes about each beer tasted, not so much reviews but quick and mostly distracted thoughts on the four ounce tasters offered, a few at the end were shared among us and I didn’t get a full taster.

• Stone Brewing Co. Belgo Imperial Russian Stout. Stone’s IRS with a Belgian yeast strain. I quickly looked over the beer list the day before the festival and this was the beer I was most excited about, so it makes sense that it was also the beer I was most disappointed with. It wasn’t bad, but it couldn’t live up the high expectations I had for it. I’m not sure how fresh it was, but it tasted more mellow than the fresh IRS I’ve had lately. But I thought it was sorely lacking many Belgian characteristics.
• Stone Brewing Co. Smoked Porter with Chipotle Peppers. This is a beer I had been wanting to try for a while since I love spicy foods and Stone Smoked Porter. The chipotle flavor was fairly mellow, but prominent. It gave the already smoky beer a nice smoky/spicy kick. Not at all like other chili beers I’ve had, but this was my first chipotle beer.
• Nøgne Ø Saison. A good saison, but fairly unremarkable. Crisp and refreshing in the San Marcos heat. It seemed to lack the fruity esters and spicy phenols and all around funky farmhouse flavors I enjoy in a saison. It could also be that my palate hadn’t quite recovered from those two previous beers, I’ll be giving this one another shot.
• Great Divide Brewing Co. Espresso Oak Aged Yeti Imperial Stout. Great Divide is one of my favorite Colorado breweries that doesn’t get distributed out here, but according to the sign at their booth that will be changing soon as they’re coming to Southern California. I love Yeti, and have had Oak Aged Yeti but never Espresso Oak Aged Yeti. The oak was pretty prominent up front with a great coffee flavor on the finish.
• Lost Abbey TEA (Traditional Experimental Ale). I had no idea what this was going in. The lemon citrus flavors were overwhelming. I once had a Belgian Wit where the brewers accidentally substituted the same amount of the much stronger dried lemongrass for fresh lemongrass. This tasted similar. This would have been my first and only pour of the day but I ate some of the wonderfully spicy Mike’s Beer Cheese Napalm Bastard and this did a good job of putting that fire out.
• San Diego Brewing Co. Hop Diego. Not my favorite Belgian style IPA but not bad. Will drink this again to get a better feel for it.
• Stone Brewing Co. Imperial Russian Stout 10th Anniversary Blend. If you can’t tell by now I love Imperial Russian Stouts. And Stone’s is one of my favorites. I thought this was just delicious. I’m not sure the exact make up of this blend but it was smoother and sweeter with the hop and alcohol flavors of fresh IRS much subdued. Stone’s IRS with a few years on it is just great.
• Urthel Hop-It. Very carbonated. Good and hoppy with some nice earthy yeast flavors.
• Craftsman Brewing Co. Triple White Sage. This was the standout beer of the festival for me. I had seen Craftsman’s name around but never had any of their beers. I’ve spent a decent amount of time hiking around the foothills of Southern California and that’s exactly what this beer tasted like. A good but not overpowering white sage flavor. Refreshing enough to drinking on a hot day, but complex enough to keep it interesting.
• Craftsman Brewing Co. Fireworks Saison. Another great beer from Craftsman. Slightly spicy phenol flavors and some good yeast flavors made this very enjoyable.
• Red Stone Meadery Black Raspberry Nectar. Amazing honey flavor but almost overpoweringly sweet.
• Julian Hard Cider. A very nice cider. Was refreshing on such a warm day. Looking forward to trying this again sometime.
• Norrebro La Granja Coffee Stout. I wasn’t too impressed by this one. One of my least favorite coffee stouts I’ve had.
• Great Divide Brewing Co. Colette Farmhouse Ale. A good saison. Nice and yeasty good farmhouse flavors as the name implies.
• Ska Brewing Co. Modus Hoperandi IPA. I had to finish out the day with something from my friends in Durango. I was hoping for some Saison Du’Rango but they had temporarily run out. So Modus it was (the other choice would have been Merlot Stout, a great beer but I couldn’t do another Imperial Stout). Nice and piney with a great hop aroma, Modus is one of my favorite IPAs.

Click below for a few photos from the day.

Stone 14th Anniversary Beer Festival, August 20th and 21st

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san diego beer festival, stone 14th anniversary, stone 14th anniversary celebration and invitational beer festival, stone beer fest, stone beer festival

If you’re reading this blog, we probably don’t need to tell you about Stone Brewing Co.’s 14th Anniversary Celebration and Invitational Beer Festival. In fact you probably already have your tickets. But just in case here’s a bit of a reminder. The main festival takes place Saturday, Augusts 21st in two parts. Session A runs from 11am-2pm and Session B runs from 3pm-6pm. Tickets are $40 which gets you into one session and includes ten taster tickets for samples from the 42 guest breweries (see below for our thoughts on a few of the breweries, and click on over to Stone’s site to see the full list of breweries on hand and buy tickets).

There were a limited number of all access tickets sold, which included access to both sessions (but only ten taster tickets) as well as access to an exclusive rare beer section, but it looks as if those tickets have sold out.

New this year is a Friday night (August 20th) Brewers Reception. The $65 tickets for this event get you into a special tasting reception with brewers from many of the participating breweries on hand.

Tickets for both Saturday sessions will almost certainly sell out, so if you’re interested pick them up in advance. Now a few quick notes on some of the breweries that will be on hand:

Many of the breweries listed you’re probably familiar with, about a quarter of them are from the San Diego area, and many more have distribution in San Diego. We hope that some of these breweries bring some limited releases and out of the ordinary beers that we don’t see at area bars and on the shelves of liquor stores everyday, but we’re not too worried, these guys hardly ever disappoint.

Looking down the list I did notice two of my favorite Colorado breweries that don’t get distributed in California will be on hand. Ska Brewing Company from Durango, CO (the town where I was living before moving back to San Diego a few months ago) are good friends of mine, and make great beer. I’m not sure what they’ll be pouring, but it will surely be something tasty. Also attending is Denver’s Great Divide Brewing Company. Rumors have been circulating for a while that Great Divide would start distributing in the San Diego area, and a rep from the brewery did tell me it’s likely they’ll be coming to SD, nothing is confirmed yet and no timeline is set. So make sure to stop by and see both of these breweries while you still have some drink tickets left, as they’ll probably be pouring something you haven’t had before, and won’t see for a while to come.