My second round of fresh hop beer reviews for this year, with three from Portland this time.

Migration Brewing – Fresh Outta Portland Fresh Hop IPA

Migration’s first fresh hop of the year uses Strata hops from Goschie Farms, though I didn’t realize until I read this description that they were flash frozen with liquid nitrogen before going into the tank:

All that you love about Straight Outta Portland, with an amplified hit of fresh Strata hops. Lots of tropical notes of passionfruit intertwined with resiny dank aromas. This year’s version of Fresh Outta Portland highlights a few of our favorite partners in the industry. Brewed with 500+ lb of Strata from Goschie Farms picked just a week ago (we blended together 7 batches) that were nitrogen frozen and put directly into the packaging tank. Pale and Vienna malt offer a medium body and a clean white head. Our largest volume of Fresh Outta Portland ever produced, 25% more volume than last year.

It sounds like almost all of Migration’s fresh hop beers this year are being similarly frozen and added to the brite tanks, rather than using just-picked, unfrozen (and undried, obviously) hops. Breakside does this as well (see below), and honestly I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Fresh Outta Portland is 7.3% ABV with 69 IBUs.

Appearance: Deep golden color, glowy at the light and a bit hazy, with a decent off-white head.

Smell: Papaya, tropical fruit, chlorophyll/fresh cut grass; it’s not super pungent, but dewy.

Taste: Tomato greens, tobacco, earthy spice that goes big and minty at the back. Field greens, maybe beet and mustard greens, and then I get that chlorophyll character again, in the flavor, which gives it a nice pop. More spice than I’d have expected but it’s good.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied and slightly minty afterglow.

Overall: It’s a tasty one, spicy and minty which is interesting.

Hopworks Urban Brewery – Fresh Hop Abominable Ale

HUB takes its winter seasonal Abominable Ale, and adds fresh Centennial hops to create a fresh hop India red ale. I thought last year was this beer’s final one, but apparently not? The website description says:

You’ve never tasted Abominable like this before! Fresh Hop Abominable stays true to its namesake with fresh Centennial hops that add juicy notes of pine for a perfect PNW fresh hop ale.

As far as I know, the hops aren’t frozen in this one. It’s 7.2% ABV with 65 IBUs.

Appearance: Copper-amber color, moderately clear, with a light tan head.

Smell: Pine, damp forest floor, some spicy hop notes but also tends toward malty, with some caramel, toasted grain notes. Not terribly fragrant.

Taste: Piney greens up front giving the essence of “fresh,” slightly menthol-like, herbal yarrow-like notes. Malty and rich with good toasty toffee-ish character, but it also mutes the hops a bit. There’s a lightly spicy pop at the back with some green leafy notes.

Mouthfeel: Medium, to medium-full body with some malt richness and residual spice.

Overall: It’s a nice beer, though the malts tend to overwhelm the hops.

Breakside Brewery – Fresh Hop WanderJack

The fresh hop version of the brewery’s popular WanderJack IPA, Breakside used fresh Strata hops for this one. The brewery also uses a liquid nitrogen technique for its fresh hop beers; from The New School’s post:

As they do every year, Breakside unlocks undried whole cone hops greatest potential by first spray freezing them with liquid nitrogen, and then shattering them by hand so that their lupulin powder is more accessible.

“We continue to use shatter open unkilned hops using liquid nitrogen, as we have since we first implemented the technique in 2014,” reports Breakside brewmaster Ben Edmunds. “Over the years, we have refined our processing, including how we handle the hops, our rate per barrel, and our contact time, but the basic process of flash freezing hops and crushing them open remains fundamentally the same. By exposing the lupulin glands, we are able to increase contact between beer and aroma-bearing parts of the hop, which improves hop varietal expression and minimizes many of the negative vegetal/chlorophyll flavors that can come from using ‘wet’ hops.”

And for FHWJ here’s what The New School said:

Recently named one of the hottest IPA’s in the country by Thrillist, Breakside’s collaboration with Barley Brown’s Brewpub resulted in a phenomenal merging of styles in Wanderjack IPA’s first release in 2020. The beer was so popular it’s made a comeback numerous times since. But only once a year can you get a fresh hop version that plays off of the regular recipes love affair of the Oregon developed hop variety Strata.

It’s 7% ABV with no mention of IBUs.

Appearance: Golden ale, unfiltered, with a white head that falls relatively quickly.

Smell: Catty(ish), with green melon that’s fairly pungent, sweaty, with lime, crushed/bruised chard greens, and melon rind.

Taste: Tasty, lightly peppery with a pungent herbal character and piney notes. A little git of fresh arugula, grass/clover, some menthol, and citrusy pith. Super clean malt base with a touch of esters but really it’s pleasantly “green.”

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied, very light residual spiciness, clean.

Overall: Excellent and one to drink more of.