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Casual drinkers tend to think of brewers like chefs. They're not, really—even tiny craft breweries treat their work as a carefully planned industrial process to manufacture ethanol, and not like a chef planning her weekend menu from the best produce at the farmer's market. Why is part of what makes fresh-hop season is so special. Not just for the romantic portrait of the brewer driving a truck out to the hop fields to load up on dank and dewy cones fresh off the bine, but because it demands a little improvisation.
"Fresh hop season is a total pain in the ass," says Baerlic brewer Ben Parsons. "There is no real predictable way of knowing the exact harvest date. So we are always at the mercy of the climate and the farmer's harvest schedule. And this year we had the added scheduling conflict of the eclipse… Brewers just have to throw their hands up and roll with it."
He rolled right. Baerlic's fresh hop Hellsner has a crisp, crackery malt backbone that's set-off by lightly floral and spicy Santiam hops from Gayle Goschie's century-old family farm in Silverton.
Santiam is the Willamette Valley's answer to noble German Tettnang and Hallertau and brought a lot to this lager, which was brewed in late July and cold-conditioned on the freshies in mid-August. Using the hops during the lagering phase meant they could taste every day, pulling the hops out before they made the beer grassy. That normally takes a day or two, but this time they spent five days in the beer.
Baerlic stayed patient and flexible, instead of just following the schedule. As Parsons put it, "We learn what is really in charge in the production loop."
The results are extraordinary—out of this year's strong crop of Portland fresh hop beers, this was the one that presented those magical little flower cones the best.
Recommended.