Announced last week, Old Stove Brewing takes home most medals at this year's Washington Beer Awards Fresh Hop Competition .
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Announced at The Growler Guys, the winners of the Washington Beer Awards Fresh Hop Competition have been announced. Covering some 60 breweries and around 136 unique beers, the competition awarded 24 medals in everything from American-style Pale ale to Double IPAs and Juicy or Hazy Imperial or Double IPA. In the end, the largest winner was Seattle's Old Stove Brewing Company, in the Pike Place Market and near Seattle Pacific University.
For the uninitiated, the Brewers Association defines a Fresh Hop Beer in the following way. https://www.brewersassociation.org/edu/brewers-association-beer-style-guidelines/#27
These ales or lagers are brewed with freshly harvested hops, typically no more than 72 hours prior to being added. Such hops might be undried fresh or frozen cones or ground material, or freshly kilned dried cones or pellets. These beers distinctly highlight the fresh hops used and are typically consumed while fresh to maximize the bright fresh hop attributes. Aging these beers will typically modify and reduce fresh-hop characters resulting in unique flavor outcomes.
Competition organizers may create subcategories for ales and lagers, or which reflect groups of entries based on fresh hops in unprocessed, frozen, or kilned form. When using these guidelines as the basis for evaluating entries at competitions, brewers may be asked to provide supplemental information about entries in this category to allow for accurate evaluation of diverse entries. Such information might include the underlying beer style upon which the entry is based, or other information unique to the entry such as hop varieties used, unprocessed, frozen, or kilned, processing or timing of addition(s) (kettle, whirlpool, fermenter, aging tank, etc.), other ingredients used or other factors which influence perceived sensory outcomes.
With allowable characteristics including "Fresh hop aroma and flavor is prominent exhibiting green grass-like, fresh mown hay/grass or other fresh hop attributes", trained judges with professional brewing knowledge, judged the following categories resulting in the following winners and their medal placements (ranging from bronze to gold).
Fresh Hop American-Style Pale Ales:
Gold: Single Hill Brewing Company - Moxee Milieu
Silver: Stoup Brewing - Fresh Hop Fiend Pale Ale
Bronze: Old Stove Brewing - Talus Fresh Hop Pale Ale
Fresh Hop Juicy or Hazy Pale Ales:
Gold: Brothers Cascadia Brewing - Six-String Samurai
Silver: Old Stove Brewing - Citra Hazy Fresh Hop Pale
Bronze: Icicle Brewing Company - Alpenhaze Fresh Hop
Fresh Hop American-Style Strong Pale Ales:
Gold: Old Stove Brewing - Mosaic Of Time
Silver: Heathen Brewing - Sultry: Mosaic
Bronze: Grains Of Wrath Brewing - Fresh Hop Built For Speed
Fresh Hop Juicy or Hazy Strong Pale Ales:
Gold: Old Stove Brewing - Citra-Tastic
Silver: Trap Door Brewing - Fresh Glowed Up
Bronze: Reuben's Brews - Fresh Hop Hazealicious
Fresh Hop American-Style India Pale Ales:
Gold: Cloudburst Brewing - Wet Warp
Silver: Grains Of Wrath Brewing - Fresh Hop Dystopia IPA
Bronze: Vice Beer - The Freshmaker
Fresh Hop Juicy or Hazy India Pale Ales:
Gold: Sound To Summit Brewing - Bine To Haze Fresh Hop Hazy IPA
Silver: RAVENNA BREWING CO - Wet Season: Chinook
Bronze: Burke-Gilman Brewing Company - FH Citra Hopsplainer
Fresh Hop Double IPAs and Juicy or Hazy Imperial or Double IPAs:
Gold: Reuben's Brews - Fresh Hop Double Crush
Silver: Wandering Hop - NUMINOUS
Bronze: Single Hill Brewing Company - Time Bandit
Other Fresh Hop Beers:
Gold: McMenamins Breweries - Citra Fresh Hop Lager
Silver: Mount Olympus Brewing, LLC - Stream Team - Citra Fresh Hop
Bronze: Haas Innovations Brewing LLC. - Loral Lager, Fresh Hop Edition
Although the hop harvest has concluded, there is still time to try and track down any of these winners from their host brewery, or wherever their beers are carried.
