Hopthema

IN BLOOM WET HOP IPA
6% ABV
HAVE WITH HOT & SPICY FOOD
Murray's "In Bloom" wet hop IPA is a celebration of freshness and flavour. It's the greenest, cleanest beer we've ever brewed!
Our hop farming friends in Tasmania handpicked the first hop flowers of the season, packed a bag of them straight from the bine, and couriered them to us at Bobs Farm by overnight air freight.
That's 24 hours from the vine, to the brew!
The next day we used these 'wet hops' to brew the freshest beer possible (most beers are made using pelletised dried hop flowers, you know). We added the wet hop flowers all the way through the brewing process, from the mash onward and jammed as many into the brewery's Hop Back as we could fit.
Their fresh, resiny hop-goodness was squeezed out of them on the way to the fermenter creating a great burst of fresh hop flavour and aroma. Balanced by clean malt flavours and a slightly cooler than our usual fermentation profile, "In Bloom" is a hop lover's Nirvana!
Fresh is always best. (http://murraysbrewingco.com.au/beers/bloom-ipa/)


HOP ROCKET INDIA PALE ALE
A true India Pale Ale brewed with only Maris Otter Pale Ale Malt and no Crystal Malt. It is a deep golden ale with a thirst quenching bitterness. Hopped with First Gold, Fuggles, Bramling Cross, Progress and Goldings. Quadruple hopped in the copper, our Hop Rocket® and dry hopped. 45 IBUs
“…puts to shame some of the lacklustre beers of modest strength that masquerade as IPA. This sumptuous beer has plum jam and blackcurrant aroma and palate from the Bramling Cross hops, balanced by sappy malt and a long, lingering bitter, fruity and quenching finish.” – Roger Protz about our 100th Brew India Pale Ale (http://westerhambrewery.co.uk/hop-rocket/)


Sierra Nevada’s New Hop Hunter IPA Set to Change The Game
As founder of Sierra Nevada Brewing, currently the second-largest craft brewery in the United States, Ken Grossman is largely responsible for launching our country’s contemporary beer culture in 1980, when his Chico, California-based operation debuted Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. After more than three decades of year-round production, the classic copper-colored brew showcasing Cascade hops remains relevant amid the evolution of Joe Consumer’s palate (we always need more hop$!!!!) and an increasingly competitive market of breweries hellbent on diversity (we always have different beer$!!!!): in 2013, Pale Ale was the U.S.’ second best-selling craft beer. Much rehspehk!
Grossman’s decision to aggressively use Cascade hops, a highly aromatic variety now synonymous with the American-bred pale ale, for his fledgling brewery’s flagship was a radical strategy; in 1980, there were only 40 breweries in the U.S. and most produced bazillions of barrels of bland lager. His divergent action has become landmark. The arrival of Sierra’s Pale Ale effectively introduced a new archetype—the fragrant, flavorful, hop-forward pale ale—that has allured drinkers, inspired brewers, and influenced new styles. I would also say with confidence, more than any other beer today, we associate the brand and the style as one, interchangeably.
A short le$$on on Humulus lupulus: While the majority of hops harvested—occuring only once annually, typically between mid-August and mid-September—are dried to preserve for year-round use, some are used immediately at their peak ripeness—anytime within 24 hours is considered ideal—to create wet-hopped beer. The first modern beermaker to embrace this hella fresh, fast-fleeting seasonal? Sierra Nevada, which decided to make Harvest Ale, now known as Northern Hemisphere Harvest Wet Hop IPA, in 1996.

Since his introduction to Cascade in 1980, then a relatively new varietal (Anchor was the first commercial user in 1975), Grossman has maintained an intimate relationship with the hip-hops growers of Washington’s Yakima Valley, a region accounting for 77 percent of the U.S.’ crop. This intimacy helped lead to the conception of Hop Hunter. The beer’s origin actually starts in 2012, when, during a visit to a mint farmer in Yakima (whose identity will remain undisclosed; for the purpose of this story, his name is Mint Eastwood), Grossman was introduced to a unique gizmo built to extract mint oils from Eastwood’s fresh mint leaves. Grossman was intrigued: “I immediately wanted to know if he could do the same with hops.”
Eastwood could. He brought the oil-sucking device, essentially a large trailer, into his field during the harvest, stuffed it with plump, just-picked hops, and connected it to a steam machine. The steam filled the trailer and its heat distilled the oils—a hop’s main source of aromatics—into a vapor. Once these oils were extracted and vaporized, they were moved into a condenser, converted back into liquid, separated from the water, and collected like fireflies. Booyakasha!
Eastwood built a similar device solely for his hops, solely for use by Sierra Nevada, last year. After tinkering with different combinations—the current blend is Cascade, Crystal, and CTZ hops—and ratios of each variety since the initial dry-hopped trial, Hop Hunter was ready.
The hop oil is potent, Grossman says: only a half-milliliter is used per barrel of beer, and it’s only a small component of the total hoppage (three pounds of whole-cone hops are also injected into each barrel). The oil is also stable: vials from the trial in 2012 are still as fresh as the latest. As a result, Sierra can now make a wet-hopped beer, or one that perfectly captures the aroma, year-round. Much rehspeckt!
A slight detour: While the all-around awesome affixed to Hop Hunter has rightfully incited a palpable buzz among beer loons, it also sparked some high-profile controversy recently. Tony Magee, founder of Lagunitas Brewing, announced his company, also an influential force in the realm of hoppiness, had filed a trademark infringement lawsuit claiming Sierra’s logo for Hop Hunter, which features “all capital, large, bold, black ‘IPA’ lettering in a font selection that is remarkably similar to the iconic Lagunitas design…,” would “create confusion among consumers as to the origin of the IPA given that both designs are used in connection with craft brew India pale ale.”
This is not the proper venue to examine Magee’s claims further, or to determine if his course of action was justifiable. After the announcement of Lagunitas’ intentions reached the “Court of Public Opinion,” however, a feverish backlash ensued and Magee quickly withdrew the lawsuit. “Today I was seriously schooled & I heard you well,” he tweeted (www.bkmag.com/2015/01/23/sierra-nevadas-new-hop-hunter-ipa-set-to-change-the-game/).
Terrapin Hop Selection IPA Details Announced
Style: Imperial IPA
Hops: Ella
Malts: 2-Row Pale, Vienna, CaraPilsner, Honey Malt
Availability: 12oz Bottles, Draft. Seasonal Release, different each year.
Release: March, 2015
8.4% ABV (http://beerstreetjournal.com/terrapin-hop-selection-ipa/)


Double Mountain Brewery
Hood River, OR
Killer Green**
Style: IPA. Fresh Hop: Brewers Gold
Description: Classic strong IPA featuring dank, herbal fresh hoppiness (http://brewpublic.com/oregon-beer/9th-annual-hood-river-hops-fest-lineup-most-fresh-hop-beers-ever/).

(http://beerpulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/LBC_YR_HT-1024x566.jpg)
Lakewood Hop Trapp Belgian IPA
Lakewood Brewing
(http://beerpulse.com/beer/lakewood-hop-trapp-belgian-ipa/)


HEAVY HANDED IPA is Two Brothers take on harvest or ‘wet hop’ ales—beers with hops so fresh they’ve never been dried or chilled for storage. Typically added to the brew kettle within 24 hours of being picked, they impart an immediacy of flavors akin to just-picked fruit or herbs straight from the back garden. However, since wet-hopped beers strive to be the pinnacle of freshness, their recipes change of necessity with available crops and the seasons. Thus it is difficult to advertise, say, a Citra or Centennial wet-hop ale with any assurance of regularity. Two Brothers Brewing solves the problem by collecting them all under the same umbrella, Heavy Handed, and discreetly labeling each run with its particular cultivar. Some parameters remain the same—ostensibly a similar grain bill and target IBU of 65—but with such variations in hopping it’s impossible to assign a single rating to the entire line of production. The concept remains sound: low variable cost per batch, high fixed flavors per bottle (https://constructiveconsumption.wordpress.com/author/lotwrenc/page/30/,
https://constructiveconsumption.wordpress.com/2013/11/02/two-brothers-brewing-heavy-handed-ipa-centennial-2/).

Ghost Rider is a White IPA (6% ABV), (http://en.paperblog.com/wasatch-ghostrider-white-ipa-devastator-squatters-hop-rising-dipa-full-suspension-coming-to-cans-755037/)

(http://en.paperblog.com/wasatch-ghostrider-white-ipa-devastator-squatters-hop-rising-dipa-full-suspension-coming-to-cans-755037/)



Tenaya Creek Brewing Hop Ride IPA (www.aboutbeverages.com/journal/2013/1/17/aboutbeveragescom-podcast-give-it-a-shot-tenaya-creek-brewin.html)

LONG IRELAND  (http://longirelandbeer.com/ai1ec_event/long-ireland-wet-hop-release-party/, http://longirelandbeer.com/beer/wet-hopped-pale-ale/)

Fat Head’s Brewery and Saloon in North Olmsted, (http://artfulpint.com/ohio-craft-beer-event/fat-heads-brewery-saloon-celebration-hop-ipa-festival/)


Lancaster Hop Hog IPA
7.9% – 8.0% abv
Aroma
Strong hops but not overdone. Resin smells linger throughout the sweet malts, resulting in a fresh, clean IPA fragrance. Also citrus notes floating around.
Taste
This IPA is very balanced and is quite easy to drink. A friend of mine, who doesn’t normally like the IPA style, really enjoys this brew. Strong, bitter hop flavors supersede everything else that is tucked away in this beer.
Mouthfeel
Somewhat sticky but not as much as you would expect from a high-octane IPA. My mouth tingled from the alcohol and felt tangy from the bitterness of the hops (http://thefullpint.com/beer-reviews/review-lancaster-hop-hog-ipa/).

HOP VALLEY CITRUS MISTRESS IPA (http://thesmokinpigbbq.com/eugene-catering-blog/menu/hop-valley-citrus-mistress-ipa/)