Recently a handful of fresh hop fanatics gathered to taste the first of the seasons bounty of Fresh Hop beers and determine their favorites. Myself, New School writer Neil Ferguson, longtime infrequent contributor Bill Night and local author and fellow blogger Jeff Alworth of Beervana met up for a socially distant driveway tasting of 14 different fresh hop beers that were among the first available in bottles or cans.
Judging fresh hop beers is especially difficult because you are looking for not just the overall quality of the beer but also the way it showcases the use of fresh hops rather than dried hops. Great fresh hop beers succeed at both, an absence of off-flavors and exceptional balance while still making the use of undried hops apparent in flavor and aroma.
Some fresh hop beers lean towards more grassy or even vegetal flavors that can veer from appealing to unpleasant, and can be love or hate for some tasters. But favorites do emerge and out of our first 14 we came to a relative consensus on a top 5 of these 14 which are highlighted at the bottom of the story.
“The best way to succeed with a fresh hop beer is to take one of your classics, and add fresh hops,” asserts taster Bill Night.
The following is our tasting notes on each of the 14 fresh hop beers assembled for our panel. Many more have since came out and we plan to taste through the lot of them and offer another update on our favorites.
The Link LonkSeptember 22, 2020 at 05:37PM
https://newschoolbeer.com/home/topfreshhopbeers
The Best Early Season Fresh Hop Beers so far — New School Beer + Cider - newschoolbeer.com
https://news.google.com/search?q=fresh&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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