Fresh Hop Release

One of our most seasonal seasonals is coming out soon - our FRESH HOP Pale Ale. 

This beer uses Cascade hops harvested from Topp's Hop Farm in Abbotsford, BC.  In order to use fresh hops, you need to brew with them within 24 hours, the sooner the better.  But being so far away from any commercial hop growers, it's not simply as easy as driving over to the farm, picking the hops and heading back to the brewery to add them to the brew.  It takes a little more coordination for us northerners!  Thanks to Air North Cargo service we've been able to get the hops collected from the farm flown up in one day and used the hops that next morning. 

Fresh hops are also a product that have to be used on the hot side of the brewing process (i.e they can't be added as dry hops in their raw form), and in our case, we use them in the whirlpool to get more of the aroma from the hops.  A whirlpool addition is when you add hops to the kettle at flame out (at the end of the boil) and circulate them in the hot wort for 20-30 minutes.  The effect of the fresh hops is a lot more subtle than other hop products (i.e. hop pellets), and the flavours can be more delicate and smooth.

 

Mesh bags are used to hold the hops so it's easy to get them out of the kettle at the end of the day - basically like a tea bag.

 

To aid with cleanup, we keep them in mesh bags, essentially a giant tea bag. This year, we brewed a double batch, each with 30 lbs of fresh hops. The brewery sure smelled amazing!  

 

Here one of our brewers, Darren, adds the hop bags to the kettle for the whirlpool.

 

But it's not all about the hops, the pale ale is also brewed with rye malt (17.6% of the grist) along with Red Shed Malting Parkland Pale and Caribou malts.

We can't wait to see how this year's batch turns out.  Find it at the brewery Tuesday, September 29.  It will be on tap and in cans to go, and it's sure not to last long!