#double mountain

Well, no. We skipped a few freshies this year. There’s only so many fresh hop beers you can try in a month. We found almost twenty different canned and bottled options, and they are still being released. But harvest season is over, and there’s a chill in the air. It’s about time to switch to something darker. In the meantime, here are ten more freshies to hold you over.

Hopicana is Old Town Brewing’s hazy fresh hop hazy. Hopicana is juicy, full of orange and mango. Fresh mosaic hops give it a melony flavor and a zesty tingle. If you want a real good, balanced hazy, Old Town knows what’s up.

Double Mountain were pioneers in fresh hops, but their signature pair, Killer Green and Killer Red, are tasting less bombastic than in past years. KIller Green features fresh Simcoe and Brewer’s Gold hops. It’s really bitter. It’s spicy like arugula, but only only presents a tiny zest of citrus. Killer Red looks almost identical in the glass. Which goes to say the two bases, an IPA and an IRA, are not so different. Killer Red is full of fresh Perle and Centennial hops, but the darker malt dominates. It’s toasty. The bitterness is more aggressive, like dandelion greens. The only fruit note is a raspberry. Both beers are nice, but a little old school.

Machine House Brewery from Seattle specializes in old school beers, session strength English ales served on cask. Their Fresh Hop Simcoe Session -- very creative name -- is only about four percent alcohol, but packs in the hops. You really get the orangy notes of Simcoe with the bite of pith in the finish. The middles is very green, like kaffir lime leaves.

Gigantic Brewing also stuck with Simcoe for their fresh hop pale ale. The Simcoe Awakens is the seventh beer they’ve made with fresh Sodbuster Farms hops. Gigantic draws out more dankness from their Simcoe. It’s got a greener flavor, more pine. The citrus notes are still their, but taste less ripe. Under all the hops, it the bones of a nice pale ale, too.

Stormbreaker Brewing’s Handfuls of Fresh Hops is almost offensive. The scent is overpowering. It’s not sweaty. But it’s not exactly dry. There are oranges in their. There are flowers. But they are rotting or something. Sarah liked it though, so what do I know.

Thundercone was probably the first fresh hop beer I ever tasted. McMenamins gets a lot of flack for being old and ubiquitous, but they can make a real nice beer. This year, Thundercone feature fresh Simcoe hops. It’s got a really fresh, green scent. It’s a little orangey. It’s a little bitter. It’s just like putting your face in a freshly opened ziplock full of hops. Very nice.

Rogue grew their own hops for Coast Haste. It’s got that Mosaic quality everyone seems to love. It’s got a lot of haze. It’s melony. It’s juicy. It’s very on trend. A little too heady for for my taste. They could lose a few points on the ABV. Good for Rogue though, doing something new.

Crux named Dr. Jack for the breeder of America’s favorite hop, Cascade. But for some reason it doesn’t taste at all like its namesake’s creation. Dr. Jack the beer is weirdly juicy. Cascade shouldn’t be juicy, right? It’s odd. It’s sweet. I don’t like it.

Black Apple CIder

Apples come in more colors than just red and green. Some are red all the way from skin to seed. Others come in with a orange tinged flesh. And some are just aptly named. Arkansas Black is a dark, dark red. No, not purple. Like red paint mixed with black. No. More black. There you go. It would look perfect in still life. A bowl, some black apples, a single candle, a witches hat, a broom.

Arkansas Black apples originated in the mid nineteenth century in, where else? Arkansas. The apples have recently caught on in the midwest and further afield. Like Hood River, Oregon where Double Mountain made them into cider. 

Compare and Contrast: Brut IPAs From Ecliptic and Double Mountain

On the left we have Star Party from Ecliptic. It pours quite clear with plenty of bubblage. It has the contemporary hop flavors you are looking for. It smells of oranges, but has a distinct malty undertone. Not nearly as dry as Old Town. And when I poured a second glass it came with enough haze to qualify as a Northeaster.

Double Mountain, on your right, went a different direction. Instead of employing starch eating enzymes to dry out their Brut, they added champagne yeast. The result is even more sparkling. The yeast adds a certain phenolic spice and an apple-like scent. The malt is unremarkable, as you’d want in an ultra dry beer. The hops edge more toward bitterness than fruity zest, but that works well with the yeast. The bubbles scrub off the tongue readying it for another sip.

A Fresh Hop Odyssey

In the Northwest, the period from Memorial Day to Halloween -- give or take a week or two depending on the weather -- is fresh hop season. It’s the one time a year when brewers can throw hops straight from the bine into their brew. The rest of the year, brewers use hops that have been dried to preserve them. Fresh hop cones begin degrading the second they’re picked. Within a few hours they already show signs of rotting. Within a few days, fresh hops turn to compost. 

The limited viability is what makes fresh hopped beers so hard to make, and few brewers outside hop growing regions attempt them. But in Oregon and Washington, so near the Willamette and Yakima Valleys, fresh hop beers are an annual tradition. Every brewery from Alameda to Zoiglhaus is throwing fresh hops into any beer they can. 

The first beer to hit shelves this year was Hopworks Totally Chill Hazy IPA with fresh Centennial hops. I don’t think the haze really let the fresh hops shine. There was an odd sort of oniony note on the nose, but it turned into tropical fuzz on the tongue. But I feel like the subtle fresh hop aromas were buried under layers of sweet bready malt.

Our bottles of Double Mountain’s Killer Red faired better. Also hopped with fresh Centennials, Double Mountain drew out more fall flavors by adding fresh Perle hops, too. Cranberry and fresh chopped wood on the nose. Pine needles and spruce meets citrus rinds on the tongue. The red ale base adds a nice toast note underneath without getting in the way.

When Sarah got a whiff of Stormbreaker’s Handfuls of Fresh Hops, she winced. She said it smelled “questionable.” It smells like pot. It’s infused with pungent  Centennial and Amarillo hops. It’s raw and rough. It’s very herbal -- basil, thyme, arugula. It tastes like the bitterest greens. It’s not a subtle beer.

For a change of pace, we moved back toward the fruity end with Hopican from Old Town Brewing. Hopicana is a hazy IPA with fresh Mosaic and Citra hops. It smells like fresh strawberries. The flavor is woodier -- cedar and grapefruit. The body is full and juicy with a vanilla sweetness. But again, I thought all the malt covered up the freshness.

At this point, I should probably mention we didn’t drink all these beers in a single sitting. Freshness is incredibly important to fresh hop beers, so the best way to sample them is as soon as they hit the shelf, or even better the tap handles. But I digress.

Back at Double Mountain, Killer Green was ready. This IPA is chockfull of fresh Simcoe and Brewer’s Gold hops. It’s a straightforward IPA. The old pine and grapefruit aromas spread out across the palate. It definitely tasted fresh.

But nothing is as fresh as Gigantic’s Sodbuster VI: the Return of the Simcoe. It tasted incredible. In a word: herbaceous. Handfuls of garden fresh basil. Bunches of fresh cut flowers. Fresh squeezed grapefruit juice. Perfection.

Mazama Brewing’s Green Magic canned some of the same sorcery in a smaller package. Fresh Centennial hops meted out a constant low level of deliciousness. It’s exactly how a pale ale should taste. Balanced unassuming, but with a depth of character that only reveals itself through multiple glasses. 

Next up, Field to Ferment from Seattle’s Fremont Brewing. Again, Centennial hops take center stage. It’s green and plant-y -- spicy herbs, notes of cedar. Nice, but missing a bit of fruitiness.

Green Tea Salad?

There’s this one hop flavor I’m really attracted to lately. You can see it in hoppier European style beers. A tea-like bitterness and tannin -- like a strong cup of darjeeling, before you add the milk and sugar. But it’s greener than that, fresher. Like salad greens. Like fresh picked arugula, still dirty from the garden. Is that making sense? It’s crisp and fresh, bitter and clean.

Citra Sisyphus 

I’ve never been a huge fan of Citra hops. In a blend I’d never pick them out, and on their own, they never quite live up to the name. 

Case in point: Double Mountain’s latest single hop IPA. I get some lemony flavor. Some citrus zest on the nose. But mostly it’s an herb game, thyme? A squeeze of lemon, a hint of pepper, lots of herbs – it sounds more like a vinaigrette recipe than a fruity beer description. I like it all the same.

Like Snoop Dogg, I guess.