Hi friends. It's Hop Harvest Time!!! Hoooray! Fresh nectar nuggets are on the way!
Brewer hot take #1: There are SO many different hops! And so few of those hops REALLY stand out as unique, if I'm being honest. Sure, brewers are "painting" all manner of IPA with "different colors," but in the end, a great many of the "paintings" are beginning to look (smell, taste) the same. My apologies to Citra and Mosaic hops. You guys are great. Really. It's not you, it's ME!
The above facts bring to mind a question. "Are there any hops out there that are REALLY that different?" I was looking for something VERY different and VERRRRRRY juicy! I set off to do a little research.
I've been brewing professionally for about 23 years now, and there's an old adage about old dogs and new tricks. It claims that it's difficult to teach one who is older and set in their ways. Lucky for me, I'm here with NoCoast. We are always learning, ever evolving and ALWAYS ready to aquire a new trick. (Add in another adage about rolling stones, or something). Regardless, as a longtime brewer, I have a lot of brewer friends. So, I decided to plug into my "Hive Mind" of brewer friends. The goal was to ask them what has wowed them lately? What are they seeing, tasting and smelling that made them pause and take note?
Their OVERWHELMING response was a few hops from a collective of mad botanists/farmers in OR called West Coast Hop Breeding (WCHB). These folks are actually doing something new, exciting and novel in the world of hops. They are breeding and growing hops that need minimal pest control and that grow VERY well in the area and climate of OR where they reside. And the hops that they are growing are excellent. One hop, in particular REALLY wowed me: WCHB 102 (Formerly "2B").
From the WCHB website, "...WCHB-102 has a clean, sweet citrus-forward profile with a high aroma impact of apple and pear and hints of lime zest, melon and pine resin. WCHB-102 lends beers an incredible breadth and depth of hop character. This hop can stand alone or be paired up to increase the layered, rich range."
We were hooked. So I contacted my friend Eric who is in charge of sales and marketing for WCHB. He told me a little more about the hop and I decided to bring some in, last year to trial it in our beloved Mid-FESTIVUS. (The festy seasonal release of our Midwest IPA). And it got some RAVE reviews. We noticed huge aromas that can only be described as a tidal wave of sweet tropical fruit. And it got me thinking that we could utilise a hop like this in an upcoming hazy double IPA. And that was the inception of what became Shoreless Echoes DDH (Double Dry Hop) Hazy Double IPA. It's a mouthful to say and a mouthful to drink!
Shoreless Echoes, is becoming our liquid ode to the glory of hops and that ode is also an experimentation. An experimentation that you, (the drinker) and we (the maker) can LEARN from. But as in any experiment, you need a control. In the case of Shoreless Echoes, we decided that that control was going to be WCHB 102. It is THAT cool and THAT unique. We have a base beer (Just BURSTING with 102) that is augmented with a Double Dry Hop of something else that's new and unique! Shoreless Echoes {Yellow} had Nectaron and our forthcoming SHoreless Echoes {Blue} has been DDH with SUPER fruit forward Simcoe! Fun for us and fun for y'all!
WHBC invited us to join them at Hop Harvest in OR this year, but we're just so dang busy, we couldn't make it this go 'round. But... they're so kind that they're sending over some farmer's cuts for us to sample and nose. Pretty awesome! I wonder what new aromatics might be in our future. I'll let you know, friends!
I don't know how to end this because...I'm a brewer. ("You're out of your ELEMENT, Donny!") Not a writer. So... Until next time, I guess! Cheers from NoCoast HQ!
