Fresh Hop Beer Style
- Color: Varies with underlying style
- Clarity: Chill haze is acceptable at low temperatures. Hop haze is allowable at any temperature.
- Perceived Malt Aroma & Flavor: Varies with underlying style
- Perceived Hop Aroma & Flavor: Fresh hop aroma and flavor is prominent exhibiting green grass-like, fresh mown hay/grass or other fresh hop attributes.
- Perceived Bitterness: Varies with underlying style
- Fermentation Characteristics: Fruity esters may present at levels consistent with the underlying beer style being made with fresh hops
- Body: Varies with underlying style
- Additional notes: These ales or lagers are brewed with freshly harvested hops. Such hops might be undried fresh or frozen cones or ground material, or, freshly kilned dried cones or pellets. These beers are typically consumed while fresh to highlight 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.
Fresh Hop Beer Vital Statistics
- Original Gravity (°Plato) Varies with style
- Apparent Extract/Final Gravity (°Plato) Varies with style
- Alcohol by Weight (Volume) Varies with style
- Bitterness (IBU) Varies with style
- Color SRM (EBC) Varies with style
2020 Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines used with permission of Brewers Association.
Credit: 2020 Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines – Hybrid/Mixed Lagers or Ale – Fresh Hop Beer