In 2008, we launched the southern counterpart to our popular Harvest Ale, featuring fresh hops picked, dried and shipped from New Zealand within seven days of the fields. Southern Hemisphere is a south-by-north fusion that showcases the intriguing floral and herbal flavors and aromas of New Zealand-grown Southern Cross, Pacifica and Motueka hops.
We work hard to get strong hop flavors into our beers and one of the ways we do that is through dry hopping. Dry hopping refers to the addition of whole-cone hops to the fermentation tanks. The addition of hops to cold beer allows the aromatic oils and resins to infuse the beer with flavor and aroma without adding any additional bitterness.
Over recent years, there has been some confusion about the difference between fresh and wet hops. While it may seem like semantics, to us it’s an important distinction.
Wet Hops are un-dried hops, picked and shipped from the growing fields within 24 hours.
Fresh Hops are the freshest dried hops to come from the fields, typically within seven days of harvest.
Over 90% of the world’s hop harvest happens between August 31 and October 31, and these hops are used throughout the calendar year. Can hops possibly be the same on November 1, one day after harvest, as they are on July 25, nearly one year after growing in the fields? The answer is no. We think of hops like dry kitchen spices—the flavor of thyme or rosemary right after the jar is opened is far more intense than it is six months later. The same can be said for hops. There are ways to control the way hops age and to reformulate and readjust as some of the aromas fade, but there’s nothing like the magic of the first bales of hops as fresh as can be. That is the stuff dreams are made of!
To those who would not go quietly…the dreamers, the builders, the iconoclasts. Before prohibition, America had more than 1,750 working breweries. By 1980, there were fewer than 100. The beer itself became boring, bland and banal—eager to offend less, rather than to please more. In the west, there was a revolution afoot, a few solitary restless rebels working for a change. They knew there was more to beer than what they were given and they went their own way. They focused on flavor, character, style and craft. With names like Maytag, McAuliffe, Grant, Grossman and DeBakker, they built tiny breweries and collectively changed the tastes of millions. They were pioneers, innovators, firebrands, but most of all they were inspirations. Today there are more than 2,000 breweries in the US with more opening every day. America now makes the greatest number of beers in the most styles anywhere in the world.
