Wet-hopped DC tastings

[chazwicke]

This just in from Dave Alexander's email:

Mid-November brings the return of Celebrator Beer News owner/publisher/lead singer Tom Dalldorf with a repeat presentation of a brewing style he introduced to DC a few years back. Fresh Harvest, or Wet-Hopped Ales. Along with my bud Tom will be one of the craft beer movement’s finest, Russian River owner/brewmaster Vinnie Cilerzo! Vinnie is the HopGod who first introduced the world to Double IPA’s. We’ll present an incredible selection of these brewing gems (only a handful of breweries even brew this delicious style) and a sampling of Russian River’s fantastic brews! This is one for the hopheads fersure. I’ve been preachin from WetHop mountain ever since Tommie shared these gems with us and I hope more breweries get involved in presenting this style. Wet hopped ales are the beer world’s equivalent to winos Beaujolais Nouveau, a wine style that showcases the essence of the grape. Those wines are not foot stomped to be put away for generations a’comin to enjoy, they are trampled to showcase the essence of the grape. Their incredible flavor profile is best enjoyed ASAP. And so it is with the wet hopped ales. The brewers have choice select hops picked from the vine and immediately transported with absolutely minimal handling directly to the brewing vat. The hop profile of these beers is basically perfect. They aren’t the kiss of the hop, they’re much more akin to a gooberfaced tounging. These beers DO age wonderfully, their hop profile will mellow but it’s so incredible at first they remain fantastic whenever enjoyed providing the publican handles their cellaring properly. BTW, ALL the BeerGuy’s storage at both the good old Brick and RFD are refrigerated.


Sounds like a good night to be down at RFD

[Stodbrew]

Mmmmmm... that does sound like a great night. The two wet hopped ales I've had, Russian River's and Sierra Nevada's, are both phenomenal beers. I guess it's time to head up to Santa Rosa and Chico and hit the breweries.

[MeridianFC]

I'm up for this. I'm not a big fan of the "let's hop it till your head comes off" school, but the one fresh hop ale I had at a Brickskeller tasting a few years ago was one of the best beers I'd ever had. The taste fresh hops bring is incomparable.

[fretlessman71]

How do these beers compare with the concept of "randallizing"? And can I get any of this stuff in Colorado?

[MeridianFC]

Randallizing, which is great btw, runs the beer through dry hops so the effect is not nearly the same as brewing with fresh ("wet") hops. I find randallizing gives the brew a nice nudge with hop flavor and aroma but not bitterness.

Using fresh hops in the boil is a completely different thing. The flavor of the hops is "juicier", I just can't think of any other way to describe it. It's not unlike the difference between fresh and dried herbs. Dried herbs tend to pack more punch per ounce, but fresh herbs have other characteristics that get lost in the drying process.

[fretlessman71]

So are whole hops dried out before they're packaged? I'm not talking about the pellets...

[MeridianFC]

Yes, as a rule all hops are dried before being shipped. This includes those sold in bulk (the kind you see in burlap sacks), sold as whole leaf, or in pellets. The use of fresh hops is extremely rare.

General Description: Leaf hops are the dried and pressed natural inflorescences of the female hop plant. During harvest, on the farm, these inflorescences or "cones" are removed from the plants, dried and pressed into bales. They are supplied to brewers as whole or part bales ready for immediate use.

http://www.hopunion.com/rawhop.shtml

[wortchillergoal]

When it comes to wet hopped I am wet behind the ears. Is there a site where I could learn who makes these and how close I migth be to getting one or two?

[fretlessman71]

All right.... so if I went over to Fort Collins Brewing, where they have a cascade hop plant growing on the side of the building and have invited brewers to help themselves, and picked all the cones they have, how would I know how much to use? How many ounces of fresh hops would translate to how many ounces of dry hops?

[Stodbrew]

Good question, Fret. That's where it gets kinda tricky. Because of the amount of water that's in the wet hops, you have to adjust your wort gravity accordingly. I think I've seen a formula for it before, and if I can find it, I'll post it here. But I think I've heard something along the lines of having to increase OG by 30% or so, because the water in the hops will bring it back down to what you actually want.

[fretlessman71]

If I picked these, put 'em in Ziploc bags, and froze them/refrigerated them, would that keep them fresh enough to work in this manner when I'm actually ready to do this?

[Theakston]

Originally posted by chazwicke
This just in from Dave Alexander's email:

Mid-November brings the return of Celebrator Beer News owner/publisher/lead singer Tom Dalldorf with a repeat presentation of a brewing style he introduced to DC a few years back. Fresh Harvest, or Wet-Hopped Ales.
Sounds like a good night to be down at RFD

I'm in!;)

[MeridianFC]

Originally posted by fretlessman71
If I picked these, put 'em in Ziploc bags, and froze them/refrigerated them, would that keep them fresh enough to work in this manner when I'm actually ready to do this?

One of the brewers can answer better than I, but what I was told about the best Fresh Hop beer I ever had, was that it was 30 minutes between picking and boil. Take that for what it's worth.

This whole fresh hop thing is fairly new territory. I'd only ever heard of the one beer as of maybe 5 years ago.