BridgePort Hop Harvest 2011

Got this sample last week, and when today's work was done -- singing, plumbing, trip planning, and I had to mow the lawn in the sopping humidity; not hot, just disgusting -- Cathy and I split the bottle. It's a hazy light apricot in color -- heading the other way, maybe a ruddy straw -- with lemony and sweet dough aromas. Flavors headed much the same way, with the hops more grassy and lemony than anything else...green and fresh, really. This makes me think of English-hopped IPAs in that it's not necessarily what most -- not all, but most -- American beer enthusiasts are thinking of when they think "hoppy beer." But still tasty, and a nice seasonal rarity.

I don't know why I didn't post this when I wrote it, back in September. My apologies to BridgePort; least I can do is to put it up now...and wait for next year!

BridgePort Hop Harvest 2011

Got this sample last week, and when today's work was done -- singing, plumbing, trip planning, and I had to mow the lawn in the sopping humidity; not hot, just disgusting -- Cathy and I split the bottle. It's a hazy light apricot in color -- or heading the other way, maybe a ruddy straw -- with lemony and sweet dough aromas. The taste? Not overwhelming; understated. I'm not surprised to get more hop flavor than bitterness from a BridgePort beer; these guys aren't about beating you over the head. There's not too much bitter, not too much sweet. I liked it, and I'd be happy to take a few more glasses in the course of an evening.

Wynkoop gets fresh

It's probably not easy being farm-friendly in downtown Denver, but Wynkoop Brewing went to some great lengths to pull it off. They trucked in fresh Chinook hop vines from Misty Mountain Hop Farm in Olathe, Colorado, and hung the fat green devils over the railings of the brewpub, right on the sidewalk, and picked hops. People walking by had a look -- "That's what hops look like, huh?" -- and the whole thing sounds pretty festive.

They put the big fresh Chinook cones -- 60 pounds! -- in a hot kettle full of wort for their Belgorado Belgian pale ale just yesterday afternoon; the leaves and vines were put in the brewery's composting setup. Great to see Wynkoop continuing to do more visible, fun stuff; this is a landmark place, and they deserve more props.

Now...wonder if any of this will still be around come GABF?

Philly Brewing keeps it local with Harvest From The Hood

Philly Brewing has done it again: another batch of Harvest From The Hood is on the streets, featuring a retro cheesecake-lite label (I can see the tops of her hose!) and righteous hops aroma from locally-grown hops. Yeah, locally-grown, as in "inside Philadelphia County." This video, with its Red Army Choir soundtrack and a narrator who sounds like John Facenda after a few shots of Powers, is something I'd love to see more of. Celebrate your beer!

Exit 1 & Harvest From the Hood

I dropped down to the Hulmeville Inn last night for a couple quick beers; not just any beer, but the new Flying Fish Exit 1 Bayshore Oyster Stout (thanks to big Tom Linquist for the tip on the Flying Fish Exit 1 firkin). I had dinner ready when Cathy got home at 5:45; 'Look, dear, casserole's ready in 20 minutes...but they're tapping a firkin of Oyster Stout at Hulmeville at 6 and those firkins never last long do you want to come along aw come on you can go oh gotta pack for Scranton okay see ya bye!' (If you talk fast enough, you can be out the door while the sound is still hanging in the air...)

So I walk in the door and there's big Tom sitting at the bar right across the room: Hey! I joined him, and the rest of the friendly pack of beer lovers at the Inn, and got a pint of Exit 1 off the gravity-pour firkin (you can see Tom tapping -- er, mostly -- the previous firkin, Weyerbacher Imperial Pumpkin, below; in Tom's defense, I'd use a bigger mallet). First off, the stuff's very dark, close to black. It was not what I'd call 'rich,' though there was a nice hint of bitter chocolate to it; this was dry stout, with a good nip of bitterness on the end, a kind of bite that did not get in the way of having another at all. Nice beer...exceptional beer? Maybe not, but a real good pint. Good enough that I had another (and paid for this one, thanks for the first one, Jeff!).

Then Jeff (Lavin, the owner) brought out some small glasses and a 12 oz. sample of harvest from the Hood, Philadelphia Brewing's new fresh hop beer, using hops grown at the brewery and Greensgrow Farms, Philly's urban CSA (just down the street from Memphis Taproom). The hop aroma was huge -- it oughta be, the label cheekily notes that it's "Sextuple Hops Brewed" -- but not what you'd call 'delicate' or 'refined,' more like "big." This one's about as subtle as the label: Hey, sailor! It's quite hoppy, and a bit rough around the edges, which I think fits the beer's Kensington roots perfectly. This beer's got terroir, dammit! Looking forward to trying it on tap (don't look for bottles, there were only about two cases made for bar samples).

At that point, I decided to go home and get some of that casserole. I sweet-talked Jeff into filling a 12 oz. "growler" for Cathy (a brown-glass flip-top I use for sampling; quite handy) -- thanks again, Jeff -- and headed up the hill to home.

Wet Hop Rodeo at Johnny Brenda's

It's that time of year: hop harvest and wet-hopped beers, those wonderfully aromatic beers made with hops fresh out of the hopyards. I've been loving them this year, and there's more coming at Johnny Brenda's Wet Hop Rodeo.

Here's the deal:

A Round-up of Local and National Wet Hopped Beers

Saturday, November 14, 2009 11am-2am
We will be featuring 8 wet-hopped beers on tap, including, for the first time at Johnny Brenda's, craft beers that have not been brewed locally [JB's is all about the local]. The line-up includes:

Victory Harvest Pils

Victory Harvest Ale

Weyerbacher Harvest Ale

Philadelphia Brewing Company Harvest from the Hood

Manayunk Brewing Hop Harvest

Port Brewing High Tide

Sierra Nevada Harvest Ale

Rogue Wet Hop Ale
plus a firkin of wet hopped ale from Iron Hill

Can't say I'll see you there for sure -- it's a busy week afterwards, and Friday the Firkinteenth the day before -- but I'm hoping to make it.

Fresh Hops? How about Capone's?

A fresh hop beer on draft? Two? Six?

How about ten fresh hop beers on draft? That's what Capone's has on this Thursday:

Manayunk Fresh Hop IPA
General Lafayette Fesh Hop IPA
Victory Harvest Pils
Victory Harvest Ale
Southern Tier Harvest Ale
Sierra Nevada Wet Hop Harvest Ale
Port Brewing High Tide IPA
Ballast Point Fresh Eye IPA
Left Hand Warrior IPA
Founders Fresh Hop Harvest

That's pretty damned impressive...you know, for the East Coast.

Like I've always said: we'll take the best you've got, because what we want in beer...is everything. And that's what makes Philly great!

Deschutes Hop Trip

I've been loving the expanded number of fresh hop beers this year, something I remember seeing start very small back in the 1990s and grow like mad in the past couple years; the recent hop shortage has only seemed to accelerate the trend, possibly because of the number of people who decided to grow their own.

Deschutes Hop Trip is on the docket tonight, claiming four hours from vine to kettle. It's a beautiful beer, glowing reddish-copper in the light with a solid cream of foam on top. But...the stuff under the foam falls short once I stop looking and get down to business. The beer's a bit heavy in the body for its flavor and bitterness, and there's not much aroma past a small, fresh grassiness. There's not a lot of hop flavor, either, and a restrained bitterness.

Hop Trip is okay, competent, but it falls far short of two beers from Deschutes I enjoyed tremendously in recent months: Twilight and Red Chair. Fresh, clean, competent, but ultimately disappointing. I really expected more from this one.