Topic Archives: Fresh Hopped

Posted in Full Sail Brewing

Full Sail Celebrates The Hop Harvest

Full Sail celebrates the hop harvest season with a long winded press release… 

Hood River, Or — One of the secrets to the wonderful flavors in beer is hops. Located in the heartland of hops, every year the Full Sail brewers wait with thirsty anticipation for hop harvest and the chance to celebrate by brewing fresh hop beers. When the hops are at their peak, the Full Sail brewers truck out to the hop fields to collect the aromatic bounty. These seasonal wonders will go from field to brew kettle within a matter of hours and the magic begins.

“As brewers we are always reliant on nature’s bounty, from the quality of the barley harvest to how the hops weathered through the Oregon summer. But no moment brings this relationship to sharper focus than our fresh hop beers. This year, we celebrate the season’s first hops with four different beers: Lupulin, 3 brews of ale each featuring a different hop variety, and Hopfenfrisch, a Pilsner lager, showcasing a fourth variety. All highlight the brewer’s art as well as nature’s gift,” said Full Sail Executive Brewmaster, Jamie Emmerson.

“When we brew with fresh hops, timing is everything,” added Emmerson. “There’s such a small window of time to take advantage of these fresh hops. We need to get them into the brew kettle within hours of picking while their oils and resins are still at their peak. It takes five to seven times more hops to brew a fresh hop beer, and it’s absolutely worth it. The result is a subtle range of fresh hop flavors and aromas that you can only get brewing with fresh hops.”

According to Emmerson, each hop variety reaches peak maturity at a different time during harvest. “For this year’s fresh hopped beers we brewed four different batches waiting each time for the right hops. To highlight the unique flavor of the different hop varieties, we brewed three ale batches using the same malts, but different hops. The beer’s balanced caramel character and malt body really let the hops shine brightly through on the palate. In the first batch we used Tettnangs, a classic old world noble hop. This beer has a full herbal character with a smooth spiciness. Next, we used Centennial hops which add a large fruity orange grapefruit citrus flavor. Then we brewed with big bold Magnum hops, a high alpha hop that imparts more bitterness per pound. The Magnum hops lend a subtle citrus flavor with a crisp hop flavor and finish. The flavors are slight orange and lime. In the lager version, Hopfenfrisch Pilsner lager, we used fresh harvested Perle, a close cousin to the North Brewer hop, which give the beer a strong herbal character with classic pils hop aromas. Combined with our lager yeast, these flavors make for a classic pilsner beer which give the beer a pleasant hop character. This pale gold aromatic brew was left unfiltered to preserve its smooth body and honeyed malt flavors. This beer is crisp and clean.” The hop varieties were locally grown at Indie Hops, BC Hop farm and Sodbuster and Goschie Farms, which are both Salmon Safe certified hop growers.

Full Sail’s Fresh Hop beers are a veritable hop lover’s delight. The tiny lupulin glands inside the hop flowers, packed with sticky resins and essential oils, provide all that wonderful bitterness, flavor and aroma. These beers are all about hops; wet hopped, kettle hopped, hop back hopped, and dry hopped in the fermenter with 150 pounds of hops per batch. That’s 7.5 pounds of hops per barrel! Most products this fresh last only a short time. Please enjoy while you can.

Full Sail’s Lupulin and Hopfenfrisch are part of Full Sail’s rotating line up ofBrewmaster Reserve beers. They will be available in limited quantities September to November on draught in pubs throughout the Pacific Northwest and at Full Sail’s Tasting Room and Pub in Hood River and at theirRiverplace brewery in Portland, Oregon. They will also be available at various fresh hop beer festivals throughout the Pacific Northwest including the Hood River Hops Festival and the Yakima Fresh Hop Festival, both Saturday, October 1st. On October 8th they will be tapped at the Oaks Park Fresh Hop Festival in Portland, Oregon and at Fresh Hop Festival in Eugene. It will also be served September 30th at the Great American Beer Festival at the Oregon Brewer’s Guild booth in the Support Your Local Brewer’s pavilion.

About Full Sail Brewing Company:
The independent and employee-owned Full Sail Brewery is perched on a bluff in Hood River, Oregon, overlooking the most epic wind and kite surfing spot in the world. At this very moment 47 specialists in the liquid refreshment arts are crafting barley and hops into your next beer. Among the company’s most popular brews are Full Sail Amber, IPA, Pale, LTD, Session and Session Black Premium lager. Founded in 1987, the Full Sail crew has been fermenting godlike nectar for 24 years. Committed to brewing great beer andsustainable practices their award winning brews are now available in 28 states. The Full Sail Tasting Room and Pub is open seven days a week. Swing by for a pintgrab a bitetour the brewery, or just soak up the view. http://www.fullsailbrewing.com ###

Posted in Lost Abbey, Videos
Posted in Heavy Seas, New Releases

Heavy Seas Wet Hops A Porter. Haarvest Arrives

Heavy Seas Brewing’s new Hop Haarvest Ale is now available.  While everyone is hard at work making fresh hop pale ales and IPAs, Heavy Seas went in a little different direction – a porter.  It’s appearance was an unplanned surprise (that you won’t end up having to pay its way through school) and a result of a house recipe competition.

Local Maryland hand picked wet hops were used to make Haarvest.  Drink it fresh and enjoy it, not all states with Heavy Seas distribution got this beer.

Style: Porter (fresh hopped)
Taste Expectations: Roasty porter meets chewy hops.  Your taste buds will flip flop between flavors.
Availability: 22oz bombers, Draft.

5% ABV

pic: @greensbeer

Posted in Beer News, Marin Brewing Co, Moylan's

Marin Preps For Wet Hops

Tim Sciascia, brewer at Marin Brewing Company (maker of Moylan’s) recently took a trip with other members of the staff to HopsMeister Hop Farm in California in search of organic, wet, fresh hops to brew with.  The farm started 4 years ago in Oregon & Washington and has grown considerably in acreage since then.

Cascade, Columbus, Chinook, & Horizon vines run as much as 15 feet high.  Marin bought hops and had them immediately picked and taken back to Novato, California to brew with as fast as possible.  Fresh hopped brews have been a growing trend over the past few years, a brew that is time critical.  Fresher the hop the better.  While some breweries ship their fresh hopped pales and IPAs, some keep them very local.

The 1st of 3 casks tap today.  Three Flowers & Marin IPA will tap over the next week.    With the left over hops, Marin hints a potentially wet hopping a favorite. Like Moylander IPA. [LarkspurPatch]