This month, we’re preparing to launch an all-new IPA into our year-round beer lineup: Hop Hunter IPA.
To our knowledge, Hop Hunter is the first beer to feature wet hop flavor year round. This intensely aromatic IPA features pure hop oil, steam distilled in the field from wet hops minutes after harvest. This hop oil contributes a powerful wet hop aroma into the beer, available for the first time outside of the harvest season.
We’re no strangers to experimental hops or hopping techniques, but working directly with a hop farmer to create this hop oil and incorporating it into the beer has been a unique and challenging experience. Hop Hunter spent more time being tweaked, tasted and tested on our pilot system than any other beer since Torpedo in 2009, and that says a lot!
All hops contain essential oils within the lupulin glands of the hop cone. Hop oils are responsible for much of the hop aroma in a finished beer—there are more than 300 compounds in the oil itself. The steam distillation process collects the oil from the hops and helps us pull the pure wet-hop essence for use as a turbo-charge for hop aroma.
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.
From a brewery known to concentrate on hop flavor, this is the most outright hoppy beer we’ve ever brewed. We hope you’ll enjoy this beer as much as we’ve enjoyed making it.
