The Brew SiteFresh hop beers are coming
Well, at least the fresh hop beers are coming for Deschutes Brewing; I can’t speak for other breweries but I assume they’re on the ball, too.
Deschutes has their annual “Hop Trip” coming up this Wednesday:
This year’s hop harvest has arrived early, and Deschutes Brewery is ready. On Wednesday, August 26th, between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m., trucks full of fresh hops will arrive at the Colorado Ave. brewery. The hops will immediately be transferred to an already-brewing batch of Hop Trip Fresh Hop Ale.
They have also been Twittering about it, and the Portland Pub actually has a version of Hop Trip brewed with Centennial hops (rather than Crystal) going on tap this week—on (you guessed it) Wednesday.
(Look for the bottled version of Hop Trip to hit the shelves sometime in October.)
I have a few hops on my own small(ish) vines, probably enough for a batch or two, and it does seem like the hops are ready early this year. (My mom also has a ton of hops, and so far they appear to be aphid free—and ready to pick in as early as a week, we think.
Don’t know if I’ll brew a fresh hop beer myself, though. If I did, though, a bit of research suggests a 5:1 ratio of wet hop weight to dry hop weight, which means I’d probably want to use 10 ounces of wet hops for a two-ounce dry equivalent.
Should be some interesting beers and ales coming out with the hop harvest. Just picked my Cascade and Magnum hops. These are first year bines so not a major haul – 1.8lbs Cascade and 1lb Magnum. Still have a Nugget hop plant going, not ready to harvest yet.
I have them drying in my living room on a large screen supported by 2 chairs and under a large ceiling fan. Have the air conditioning running so low humidity in the house. My wife is impressed (rrrrright). It’s only for 3 to 5 days then they are going into an IPA homebrew. Just hoping the friggen cat leaves them alone – so far, so good.