There is a certain love that comes with a fresh pint of fresh hopped IPA that gets beer fans of all stripes a sense of wonder and delight. While some will think that these beers should be consumed within hours of being brewed or packaged there are some brewers who believe giving these beers a little bit of time is beneficial to everyone.
Zach Beckwith formerly of Bend Brewing talked with Beer Edge Editor John Holl about his thoughts of how to best serve fresh hop IPAs.
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“This is where I probably differ from a lot a lot of people is that I feel that if you look at it – and hops traditionally until the last 20 years – were pretty much used as a balance the sweetness of the malt and for preservative, qualities.
So when you’re using these massive amounts, I mean, we’re using 10 to 12 pounds per barrel of fresh hops. You may, I like to say, it is that you kind of have ups and downs when they’re real fresh. But then you kind of hit a plateau it doesn’t just peak and then fall off quickly, in my opinion.
I feel that because you’re you have so much of hop character in there, it does tend to hang on for longer.
And that’s just based on the hot side. Some breweries that are putting finished beer in a bright tank with on some fresh hops, those beers tend to have a more fleeting aroma, just the same way that the aromatics and a dry hop beer, a dry hopped IPA, kind of tend to fall off.
But I think that that’s also kind of a misnomer in some ways.
You want some stability, because you want even though these beers are changing, like crazy, they’re fresh hop beers. And up and down, that eventually you want it to settle into a some sort of consistent character, just as you would with any beer.
That’s why as I said we’re paying as much attention to the malt bill we’re using. We use a small amount of pellet hops typically in our fresh hop beers too, because we want it to be a complete beer, we don’t want to just to be where it’s only good for a day and a half, and then it’s not great any more.
What we found was that with some of our package fresh out beers that they actually hold that once they kind of go through that initial up and down volatile phase that once they settle into a groove, they hold up remarkably well.
The oxidations seems to be lower and just, I think, the only thing that I can attribute that to is just that you’re using such a massive amount of hop material that you’re getting that preservative quality, it helps it hang on longer.
That’s my theory. And I think that a lot of people would disagree with me, that they need to be drank as quickly as possible. But I think that realistically, for a brewer, thinking that beer you put out is going to be drank within two days of packaging. It’s just not a realistic scenario.
So, you want to ensure that that beer is going to is going to taste great down the line, especially if you’re putting these into packages.”