Just as fresh herbs taste somewhat different to dried herbs,
same goes with the hop cone. Because of the volatile nature of hops they are
quickly dried straight after picking in an attempt to preserve all the aroma,
flavour and bitterness that we have come to know and love, crave and cherish
and adore…err, you get the picture.
Moving on, so the thing is, what does beer taste like with
fresh hops, or otherwise known as wet hops, green hops or harvest beers, and
sometimes seasonal beers?
Short answer, green. Long answer, earthy, woody, grassy green.
Here’s a list of local fresh hop brews in my order of pungent hop power.
10/ Funk Estate ‘Oh Lordy’ 5% NZ Pale Ale; lord almighty green
and mango hoppyness.
9/ Renaissance ‘Grandmaster’ Fresh hop imperial India Pale Ale
8.5%; a barley wine cum double IPA, exudes earthy lime hops.
8/ The Mussel Inn ‘Lawn Moa’ Fresh hop lager 5%; a
salubrious taste of freshly mown lawn clippings.
7/ Parrotdog ‘Kakapo’ Wet Hopped IPA 6.5%; a big fat green hoppy
parrot.
6/ Panhead ‘The Vandal’ Fresh Hop 8%; get smashed on this
fresh green hop customisation.
5/ Sprig & Fern ‘Harvest Pilsner’ Fresh hopped 5%; a
ferntastic sessionable with green sprigs of passionfruit.
4/ Townshend ‘Oldhams Tap Pilsner’ 5.3%; grassy, grapey, and
piney from a Tappy hop garden.
3/ Garage Project ‘Sea of Green’ Pilsner 5.8%; bitterly
green lime hops that you get drowned in.
2/ Tuatara ‘Conehead’ Air-hopped IPA 6%; astonishing piney
green passionfruit hops, finishing with a lagerish bite.
1/ Enlightenment ‘Fresh Hopped Black the Ripa’ 6.66%; a hop
mosaic, green, black and pale, all at the same time. A proper black IPA with
heaps of malt and reeks of hops.
Fresh hop from FreshChoice. These will go faster than a kiwi
saver kick start fund. Get em while they're hop.
Bellynote: ParrotDog have just been announced ‘champion
small international brewery’ at the Australian Beer Awards. Kiwi beating Aussie
in their backyard yet again!!!
Denis reviewing brewing Cooper
