Working through more of these fresh hop reviews, with three more here to check out.

Breakside Brewery – Fresh Hop IPA

Breakside brewed a marathon number of fresh hop beers this year, and I only scratched the surface of what they had to offer. This can was the Fresh Hop IPA, brewed with fresh Chinook hops, and that’s about the extend I know about it.

At 6.2% ABV, there’s no mention of IBUs. It was packaged on September 1, I drank it September 27. Notes:

Gold, bright, unfiltered. Aroma is fresh and green, a bit of fresh rain in a fir/pine forest, a light kiss of minty(ish) herbs; quite clean in that sense. Fresh and clean flavor too, mellow and mild with clover, menthol, a hint of sage. Really, really nice though surprising how mild this is; I expected Chinook to have a much bigger, bolder presence. But it’s tasty and clean.

Fort George Brewery – Rock, Paper, Centennial Wet Hop Pale Ale

Ah, Fort George, one of the few breweries calling these “wet” hop beers. Not that it detracts from my enjoyment of drinking them. The description on this year’s Rock Paper beer says:

The Rock, Paper, Series allows the brewery to make limited batches that focus the recipe on one ingredient. This year’s release is brewed with freshly picked Centennial hops from our good friends at Crosby Hop Farm. Expect pungent, dank citrus notes with a fresh floral aroma.

Easy drinking at 4.99% ABV, I don’t know what the IBUs are. Obviously it was hopped with Centennial, and this was canned on September 8; I drank it September 28. My notes:

Light copper color, glowy when held at the light. Fresh clean hay field with some wildflower and a touch of lupulin spice aroma. Floral, herbal. Flavor is mellow but leans into hop pollen and fresh herbs (hints of parsley, perhaps caraway?). Gentle spiciness that’s nice and even-handed, with some wet hay. Nice graininess.

Crux Fermentation Project – Full Gold Fresh Hop Hazy IPA

Crux’s two packaged fresh hop ales this year both featured newer hop varieties: Pert Near with McKenzie (check out my notes for it here), and Full Gold with “BRU-1” hops, for which I didn’t have an explanation. I’d received a can of Full Gold from Crux, and initially assumed it was a play on “Brew-1,” AKA Crux’s original location; but according to Ryan Sharp in a comment on Facebook, “BRU-1 hops are so named because they come from Brulotte Farms in Yakima. Presumably they will get a regular name when they leave the experimental stage.”

So there we go. The description for the beer says:

For this year’s hazy fresh hop expression, we picked our batch of BRU-1 hops at the height of ripeness to capture every ounce of their unique and explosive pineapple flavor. The result is a beer so tropically juicy it deserves an umbrella. You might even feel an island breeze with every citrusy, stone fruit accented sip. Don’t delay, drink it today and be swept away to your own personal island oasis, wherever you are. Stay golden!

6.5% ABV with 45 IBUs. It was packaged September 21, I drank it September 29. My notes:

Hazy with a dirty juice appearance; dirty gold. Aroma is tropical fruit (pineapple, papaya) and “hot” spicy greens—I wanted to say “cactus” but really, wild mustard or nettles or something like that. Flavor has melon fruitiness with an underlying bitterness that’s a combination of bitter fruit skin and oak leaves. Earthy too, and mild when it comes to overall “fresh” character.