Hop Hunter IPA takes aim

The release of Sierra Nevada Hop Hunter IPA shows the brewery could be on to something big. It’s great to see a brewery in the Appalachian region participating in a potentially groundbreaking development.

With America’s IPA palate leaning more and more toward fresh hop flavor and aroma, but not more bitterness, it’s in a brewery’s interest to find better ways to capture, preserve, and utilize the fresh hop essence for making its hop forward brews.

In its natural state, hops do not cooperate. Like a rebellious teenager who is dead set on doing exactly what you wish he wouldn’t, a luscious fresh aroma hop will quickly give away the finer qualities of its essence, no matter how loudly one doth protest. Without some form of preservation, hops soon stale and become useless for most brewing purposes (unless you are making a lambic for gueuze). The traditional preservation techniques of drying, compressing, vacuum sealing, cold storage, and freezing are good for preserving bitterness and flavor but less good for preserving hop aroma. The bright edge of fruity/spicy/piney/citrusy aromas diminish much more than brewers would like.

With hop cones losing so much of their fresh aromas very shortly after picking, brewers have to move fast. That’s why breweries, when making their fresh hopped beers, spend so much time, money, and energy getting fresh whole cone hops delivered to the brew kettles and fermentors within 24 hours of harvest. These hop realities limit brewers to fresh hopping only during hop harvest season.

Fresh wet hops a unique favoring ingredient

Wet/fresh hops are attractive because they give an extra dimension to a beer that is familiar, yet distinctly different. Brewers annually experiment with both old and new varieties of fresh hops, learning to use them judiciously to expand the desired aroma and flavor profiles of their beer. Craft beer drinkers are liking what they find.

More than one brewer has surely wondered, “How could I get this fresh hop flavor all year round rather than just at harvest?” Sierra Nevada’s new farm-distilled hop oil process seems like it might be a solution.

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company says the new process “contributes a powerful wet hop aroma in the beer for the first time outside of the harvest season.”

Sierra Nevada describes it thusly: We harvest hops from the field, then we use steam to vaporize the oils inside the wet (un dried) cones. A condenser cools the vapor to produce pure essential oils without any of the bitter resins that give hops their signature bite. The result is complex aromatic notes, heavy with the green, grassy, floral and lemon-grapefruit citrus character of wet hops.

The brewery reports it spent years developing the technique for making and using its hop oil. It allows it to turbo-charge a beer by adding the pure, wet-hop essence in addition to the regular dried, whole-cone hops it normally uses.

Hop Hunter IPA breaks new ground

Hop Hunter IPA is the first commercial beer produced with the new hop oil. Released in January, it is generally available around the Appalachian region. It definitely displays a fresher hop aroma than one would expect in a non-wet-hopped beer.

Like any aroma, some will appreciate that fresh hop essence more than others. Many will  like the green, grassy, floral edge it provides.

Surely the primary use of the oil will be in IPAs and other hop-centric beers. Beyond that it could also have applications in other styles for which extra bitterness is not needed but a fruity or spicy boost might help.  Think about Berliner Weisse and American Wheat ales with fruit added. Just the right touch of natural fresh hop essence could be added in the same way a chef adds a touch of herbs or spices to complement and expand the flavor complexity of a dish. Someday having a range of varietal hop essences, each with its unique aroma and flavor signature, would allow the master brewer to produce new flavor experiences sure to be eaten up by the future craft beer community.

Here is the introductory video from Sierra Nevada on its farm distilled hop oil.

Link to Sierra Nevada’s Hop Hunter IPA web site