It’s fresh-hop season, everybody! While my palette is not a huge fan of the fresh hop and the pale ales they usually employ, I can appreciate the uniqueness of this beer. I can also appreciate the fact that I didn’t really know what makes a fresh-hop beer different. Here’s how it all breaks down.

Basically, as soon as hops are harvested, they are normally dried to preserve their flavor and keep them from spoiling. They’re often then made into pellets for easier handling throughout the brewing process.

However, when hops are harvested there is a small, about 24-hour window when the moist hops can move from the bine to the brewery. The idea came from a farmer in 1996 who suggested it to the brewer at Sierra Nevada and off the trend took. It was concentrated mostly in the PNW for years because, well, that’s where the hops were primarily grown in the U.S. Now breweries all over the country join in on the trend. Most of them still get their hops from the PNW region and rapidly truck them in for insta-brewing.

Fresh hop beers are usually described as bright or vibrant - the greenness of the hop really comes through. They have the familiar flavors of pale ales, but dialed down a bit. It’s a mellow delicate beer and the uniqueness of the process alone makes it worth a try.