Hooray for Hop Harvest season!

Hello all,

Yes late August/September is hop harvest season, cause for great excitement for brewers and craft beer loving hop heads alike!

In recent years the term “wet hops” has been used to describe beers that are made with hops that were harvested immediately before being brewed with, without them being dried (which is what is usually done).

I’ve brewed wet hop beers in the last five years or so (including an amber ale tentatively titled Wet Amber brewed last Sunday) and am a fan of this bine to boil kettle practice. As the hops are not dried eminently perishable oils and resins are still available to the brewer, bringing out different aroma and flavor characteristics you get from, say, Cascade hops that have been dried.

As an example grassy and vegetal have been used as adjectives to describe the aroma/flavor impact of fresh hops. Green, quite literally, is another esoteric adjective that is used to describe that fresh hop character. While grassy and vegetal don’t sound particularly appealing for tastes in beer, in my experience the use of wet hops brings out their delicious citrus and floral characteristics, while also being grassy in a good way (think of the smell of fresh-cut grass).

In about a year will the Parched Eagle brew a wet hops beer? YES we will!

Meanwhile there’s a distinct possibility that we’ll have some good news to share soon: we’ll keep you posted!

Cheers,
Jim

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