American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
(Courtesy Yakima Chief Hops)
Fresh hop ales are one of the most celebratory beers in American craft beer, but unfortunately they remain a rarity for much of the world.
Brewed with whole wet cones within 36 hours of harvest, they represent hops in their most natural form.
Fresh hops are typically purchased by breweries located closer to the source, hop farms of the Pacific Northwest where 75% of the nation’s hops are grown. And because they’re so highly perishable fresh hops must be delivered from bine to brewer within an extremely tight time window.
As a result Fresh Hop Ales, one craft beer’s most valued variations, remain a rarity in many US regions. But now Yakima Chief Hops (YCH), a grower-owned hop supplier, has made fresh hop ales possible for the global craft beer industry with the launch of their cutting edge Frozen Fresh Hops program.
Yes!!!!!
YCH’s Frozen Fresh Hops are raw, un-kilned, flash frozen whole cone hops produced in a state-of-the-art BRC-certified food processing facility. Unlike traditional freezing, flash freezing retains the delicate nuances of un-kilned hops by protecting lupulin gland integrity, preserving fresh hops from both a physical and aromatic perspective.
The result is a product that delivers the magic of fresh hop season with better storability and logistical flexibility. The overall benefits of Frozen Fresh Hops include better storability, higher quality upon arrival. If stored at any temperatures between fourteen and thirty-five degrees Fahrenheit, they must be used within 48 hours.
“As a northwest brewer, Fresh Hops have a special place in my heart,” said YCH’s Brewery Manager, Jeremy Wattenberg. “Frozen Fresh hops will be a game changer in the way we look at fresh hopped beers.”
Inspired by Wyckoff’s fresh frozen blueberries which are now exported across the globe, Yakima Chief’s Frozen Fresh Hops is potentially a game-changer that could bring the wonder that is the Fresh Hop Ale to much of the world.
###
Want more on hops? We can help you with that….
