On sprawling farms clustered around Yakima and Willamette valleys, thousands of green Humulus lupulus vines snake vigorously skyward. A relative of marijuana, these hop plants produce resiny, cone-shaped flowers prized for their use as a bittering agent in beer. October is the traditional time for end-of-the-season harvesting and hops are no exception. That’s good news for beer lovers, as many breweries take advantage of the numerous Pacific Northwest hop farms, creating beers flavored by hops sourced 3-5 hours from the kettle boil. These beers typically have an aroma akin to that of a freshly mowed lawn and the resinous and deep floral notes that hop heads love. Since Sept. 1, Peaks & Pints has tapped three to seven fresh hop beers daily, including today. Stop by Peaks & Pints for yet another fresh/wet hop beer flight, Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Wet Hops.
Peaks and Pints Beer Flight: Wet Hops
Old Schoolhouse Fresh Hop Stowaway Pale
5.8% ABV
Old Schoolhouse Brewmaster Kyle Koger, who worked his way up at the brewery, mostly brews in their larger production facility and taproom in Twisp. Koger is responsible for taking the brewery to the next level — integrating the art and science of brewing beers with the medals to prove it, such as First Place at Yakima Fresh Hop Ale Festival 2022 for their Fresh Hop Stowaway Pale Ale. Brewed with huge bags of Simcoe freshies from Perrault Farms, plus Citra and Mosaic, this Northwest-style pale is light and crisp.
Single Hill Energy Cone Fresh Hop IPA
6.5% ABV
The staffs at Full Throttle Bottles and Bottleworks — two popular Seattle craft beer bottle shops and taprooms — joined Single Hill Brewing in downtown Yakima to brew Energy Cone five years ago. Last year, this popular fresh hop collaboration added the staff at Bridge & Tunnel Bottleshop & Taproom in Astoria to help brew Energy Cone. This year, Peaks & Pints joined the fun. In the previous years, Single Hill always went to Sauve, Loza, and Cornerstone for wet hops and the fresh kilned for dry hopping. This year on brew day those farms were in alpha hops that wouldn’t make a great beer, so they went to a couple favorites — Blackstar and Perrault. It’s usually Citra heavy but swings around depending on the year and sometimes goes more Mosaic. This year is about 3:2 Citra: Mosaic wet.
Gold Dot Single Hop Centennial Wet Hop IPA
6.5% ABV
This is Gold Dot Beer’s second Wet Hop Centennial collaboration with Varietal Beer in Sunnyside, Wash. Brewed with fresh Centennial hops from Goschie Farms, this fresh hop IPA sports a classic Midwest caramel, sticky malt-bill approach to an all-Centennial, hot-side wet hop IPA with oily hop, pine and dank notes.
Old Stove Fresh Hop Strata
6.8% ABV
Packed with 360 pounds of wet Strata hops from Crosby Farms in Oregon, Old Stove Brewing’s Fresh Hop Strata IPA exudes chewy notes of passionfruit, grapefruit, and strawberry over a nice malt bill with a pleasant lingering bitterness.
Level That’s Weird, Call Mom
8% ABV
Weird, indeed, for a fresh hop … Level Beer’s That’s Weird, Call Mom is a fresh hop double IPA brewed with fresh Simcoe hops from Coleman Agriculture and then aged in gin barrels for floral, botanical, pineapple, vanilla, and coconut notes.
LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory
