Fresh hop ales made from fresh or wet hops have long since been one of the most celebratory beers in the craft beer community. Brewed with the whole wet cones straight from the bine and into the kettle within 36 hours of harvest, they represent hops in their most natural form while honoring their rich agricultural roots.
Brewers within reach of farm fresh hops go to great lengths to plan their brewing operations and recipes around these highly anticipated seasonal beers. As a hop ingredient that is dependent upon the unpredictable nature of hop farming, brewers traditionally get one shot each year to clear their kettles and make it happen.
YCH 301 Trial is part of the Yakima Chief Hops Elite Product Trial program. It combines the ground-breaking concept of Frozen Fresh Hops and the innovative technology of Cryo Hops® to pioneer a new way to brew fresh hop ales with a pelletized product.
YCH 301 Trial requires a two-part production process. First, freshly harvested, unkilned whole cone hops undergo a flash freezing process in a state-of-the-art BRC-certified food processing facility. This helps retain the delicate nuances of fresh hops from both a physical and aromatic perspective by protecting cell wall and lupulin gland integrity. This results in a product that preserves the magic of fresh hop aromas and flavors. The Frozen Fresh Hops are then produced into concentrated lupulin pellets with YCH’s fully patented cryogenic hop processing technology that gently separates the whole cones and isolates the lupulin. The lupulin containing the aromatic hop oils is preserved using extremely low temperatures and a nitrogen-rich, low oxygen environment during the entire process. This creates a concentrated lupulin, fresh hop product that can be used anywhere in the brewhouse
Cryo Fresh™ hops make a wet hop IPA possible, anytime. And Cryo Fresh™ Torpedo® is the first nationally available IPA to feature their extreme notes of citrus, stone fruit, and fresh harvest magic.
Hops hit their peak right when they’re picked, but they fade fast. So the innovators at Yakima Chief Hops set out to keep them fresh, forever. Using freshly picked hops — still undried (“wet”) — Yakima Chief runs a patented cryogenic process to remove the hop leaves and isolate the jackpot inside: pure lupulin, the source of aroma and flavor.
Sierra Nevada designed a special blend of these Cryo Fresh hops, officially named YCH® 301 Trial hops, to give Cryo Fresh Torpedo its explosive layers of grapefruit, orange, passion fruit and mango — harvest flavors straight from the field.
