The team at Portland’s Double Mountain paces the brewery floor silently, eagerly anticipating the fated call that signals the beginning of Fresh Hop Season. When head brewer Greg Balch’s phone finally rings, he hears those fated words: “The hops are ready. Get here.”

In refrigerated trucks, Greg and his team peel out of the brewery like firefighters to the flame. 45 minutes later, they’re leaping into fertile Willamette Valley hop fields to bag pounds of pristine Perle Hops for Killer Red IRA, their most popular fresh hopped beer.

Within an hour they’re back at the brewery adding those Noble green gems to their Red Ale base for a brown sugar-dusted apple spice flavor spiked with Oregon’s signature resinous pine character. Would you believe, the whole process takes less than 2 hours!?

Back in Portland, the people have heard “fresh hop’s the word.” They buy tickets to Hood River Hop Fest, where they’ll patiently line up for this seasonal wonder. And while they map routes to other breweries with Fresh Hops on tap, the last flavor they’ll want lingering on their lips Killer Red at Double Mountain.

If you’ve never tried Fresh Hop Beer, do it now -- you’ll understand why Fresh Hop Season in Oregon is akin to Mardi Gras in New Orleans or New Year's Eve in New York.

If you have tried Fresh Hop Beer, then you stopped reading at the subject line.

Rated 4.01 on BeerAdvocate

Packaged On September 11th, 2018