The Brew SiteFresh Hops Week: The bottled list
Earlier in the week I was ruminating on the overall number of fresh hop beers out there, but the conclusion is that it’s really a moving target: many (most) are highly seasonal, draft-only batches (often one-offs) usually only available on location.
So I did deeper research, looking for breweries that bottle (or, in the case of several, bottled and have since retired) their fresh hop beers and tallying the results. The list is pretty small; of the 14 total I was able to find, two are unconfirmed, three are retired. Here they are:
| Brewer | Beer | Style |
|---|---|---|
| BridgePort Brewing | Hop Harvest | American Pale Ale |
| Butte Creek Brewing | Fresh Hop Organic Sustainable Harvest IPA | American IPA |
| Coast Range Brewing | Farmhouse Fresh Hop Ale | American Strong Ale |
| Deschutes Brewery | Hop Trip | American Pale Ale |
| Great Divide Brewing | Fresh Hop Pale Ale | American Pale Ale |
| Great Divide Brewing | Maverick Fresh Hop Pale Ale (Retired) | American Pale Ale |
| Hale’s Ales | O’Brien’s Harvest Ale | American Pale Ale |
| Harpoon Brewery | Glacier Harvest Wet Hop Beer | American Pale Ale |
| Mac’s Brewery (New Zealand) | Mac’s Hop Harvest (Retired) | Pale Lager |
| Port Brewing / The Lost Abbey | High Tide Fresh Hop IPA | American IPA |
| Portsmouth Brewery | Hop Harvest (Unconfirmed) | Imperial IPA |
| Red Hill Brewery (Australia) | Hop Harvest Ale (Unconfirmed) | English Bitter |
| Sierra Nevada | Harvest Fresh Hop Ale | American Pale Ale |
| Yakima Brewing / Bert Grant’s Ales | Bert Grant’s Fresh Hop Ale (Retired) | American Pale Ale |
The criteria by which I confirm a bottled version of the beer simply falls into the category of, is there a picture of it? Does the brewery itself offer a picture or written description that indicates it is, in fact, bottled? Not very scientific, I admit. In the two unconfirmed cases, I found reference to bottled versions but couldn’t verify either way.
I’d love to be able to build on this list, so let me know if there are other bottled varieties out there. And of course I’d never turn down a sample of said bottles. :)