A breath of fresh hops

Sometimes when it comes to brewing beer, it takes a village.

That’s certainly the case with Iron Goat ’s third annual Spo-Hop, made with fresh hops grown by the brewery’s customers in their back yards. It just went on tap at the tasting room after a preview at last weekend’s Inland NW Craft Brew Festival.

Those at the Goat’s hop-picking party in early September (pictured above) harvested 100 pounds of hops for the brew, mostly Centennials and Cascades, up from last year’s 60 pounds. (Actually, there was even more than that, with the excess going to home brewers.)

The result is a rather smooth beer (5.8 percent by volume, roughly 60 International Bitterness Units, which is harder to calculate with fresh hops) featuring relatively subtle citrus, floral and spice notes.

The brewery also is pouring a more aggressive Simcoe Citra IPA (6.5, 70-ish), using commercially grown hops, with plenty of tropical fruit from the Citra on top of the Simcoes’ citrus and pine.

But that’s only the beginning of the local fresh hop offerings, made with fragrant, whole hops from this fall’s harvest. Twelve String’s all-Simcoe fresh hop IPA (6.3, around 65), a richer golden in color, has plenty of grapefruit up front followed by piney notes in the dry finish.

River City and Waddell’s collaborated on an Easy Green Fresh Hop Pale (6.2, 70), using Simcoe and Cascade, which is a darker amber and more balanced with lots of Munich malt countering the spicy, earthy hoppiness. It went on tap first at River City, with Waddell’s to follow.

Those two breweries also teamed up for another one made entirely with Equinox – known for its complex flavors, from woody and herbal to bright bell pepper – which will debut at Waddell’s next week.

No-Li is breaking the Simcoe mold with a fresh hop beer using all Chinook, said to be particularly potent this year, which head brewer Damon Scott describes as a “piney beast.” It will be released in time for Saturday’s Fresh Hop Ale Festival in Yakima.

In North Idaho, Slate Creek today brewed its Backyard Harvest Rye IPA, using locally contributed hops, while Laughing Dog has both a Hop Dog community fresh hop ale (being served from a firkin on Friday at the Sandpoint-area pub) and a commercial version with Cascades.

MickDuff’s is pouring a Wet Hop IPA and Wet Hop Red, and Trickster’s just tapped its Hoppit, made with Citra and Chinook, to be followed by a Cascadian dark ale dubbed “Feel the Love CDA” featuring Simcoe, Centennial and Mosaic.

Along with No-Li, look for Laughing Dog (a leading six-time medal winner) in Yakima as well as Iron Goat, River City and Pullman’s Paradise Creek, with its intense, all-Simcoe Alpha Madness.