For the final Cosmic Collaboration beer of the year, Ecliptic Brewing teamed up with Baerlic Brewing to release a “fresh” hop IPA—appropriately enough for winter, a Frozen Fresh Hop Double IPA. The fresh hops are frozen via Yakima Chief Hops’ Cryo method allowing “fresh” hop beers to be brewed anytime.

Press release:

Portland’s Ecliptic Brewing and Baerlic Beer Co. have teamed up to brew a Cosmic Collaboration beer launching this winter. Ecliptic + Baerlic Cryo ® Frozen Fresh Hop Double IPA will ship December 14th in 16-ounce cans and draft and is the sixth and final beer in this series for 2022.

Ecliptic + Baerlic Cryo ® Frozen Fresh Hop Double IPA is brewed with Pale and Pilsner malts and a variety of special trial hops coming from Yakima Chief Hops (YCH). YCH 301 Trial hops are part of the company’s Elite Product Trial Program. From YCH: “It combines the ground-breaking concept of frozen fresh hops and the innovative technology of Cryo ® Hops to pioneer a new way to brew fresh hop ales with a pelletized product.” This Double IPA features Citra, Simcoe and Mosaic varieties of these trial hops and finishes at 8% ABV.

Says Ecliptic’s Owner and Brewmaster, John Harris, “I’m stoked to be working with Rik and Ben at Baerlic. They have been making super fun beers for many years. We met up to discuss what to make and realized that we had all tried a certain beer recently and were loving the hop aromas. The beer used these new hops from YCH. So, the idea was to make a straight-ahead Double IPA, relishing in the citrus, tropical and dank aromas.”

Ecliptic + Baerlic Cryo ® Frozen Fresh Hop Double IPA will be released in 16-ounce cans and draft throughout Ecliptic Brewing’s distribution network on December 14th. Visit Ecliptic’s website for up-to-date details on this release and potential release events.

Ecliptic + Baerlic Cryo Frozen Fresh Hop Double IPA

Brewed with our punk rock friends at Baerlic Beer Co, this Double IPA absolutely shreds with a brand-new, cutting-edge infusion of YCH 301 cryo frozen fresh hops. These hops were flash-frozen and pelletized for an epic thrash of fresh flavor in galactic proportions.

ABV: 8%
IBU: 60

I’m still skeptical of calling these “fresh hop” beers since they are being processed and not fresh-picked from the bine. But I bet this is still a pretty interesting beer!