Fresh Hop West Coast IPA

By the 1790’s the British were established in India and needed beer, which was considered a staple in every household. India, however, presented serious problems for brewers. Hot temperatures, poor water and short supplies of basic ingredients made it impossible to brew beer. Attempts to ship beer out of Britain to Calcutta failed. 

George Hodgson of London produced a pale ale of greater strength and bitterness than those he sold in London. The hops helped protect the beer from spoilage, as did the increased alcohol content. Hodgson’s India Ale arrived in Calcutta in fine shape-clear, strong, and bitter, with a big, resinous hop aroma.  The word spread of India Pale Ale and people throughout England and the United States were clamoring for this wonderful new beer. The rage lasted through 1970’s, but lost steam in the 1980’s and became just another name for low alcohol bitters. 

As craft beer has emerged and grown, so has IPA! IPA has helped grow Craft Beer to what it is currently today. There are now many shapes and forms of IPA, but they all share bright aromatic hop aroma of citrus, tropical fruit, and pine.

Our Fresh Hop West Coast IPA showcases fresh hops from classic varieties Amarillo and Centennial, but in new innovative fresh hoping techniques. We are pulling both these hops straight from the hop farms in two different ways- first fresh Centennial off the bines these hops go straight to our brewhouse. We convert our lauter tun into a massive hop back and run finished wort over top of them before the go into the heat exchanger. Once the hop pellet mills fire up the day after Labor Day, we are using Crosby Hops new CGX process of cryogenic freezing of fresh hops. This turns the Amarillo and Centennial fresh hops into a concentrated powder that we dry hop the beer with. This double fresh hop process creates a beer that is dynamic as the hop growing season itself and celebrates the new harvest of our beloved hops!