Fremont Brewing Cowiche Canyon Fresh Hop Ale: Brewed in Seattle, WA at a strength of 6% abv, this fresh organic hop ale featuring Citra and Simcoe was a nice change of pace from the local BC fresh hopped beers just to try some different fresh hops more than anything since there aren’t a lot of fresh varieties available here (as I learned, some of the patents are actually for pelleted hops only so they can’t sell some of them fresh either). This also came in a can, nicely sealing in the those delicate oils that will never see any light until poured.
Aroma and Appearance: The pour generated one finger of foam with some medium carbonation and a clear golden coloured beer. It’s aroma consisted of fresh lemons, passion fruit, peaches and tropical fruity pineapple.
Flavour: There was some mild caramel and bread malt with lots of juicy passion fruit, a touch of mango and a serious grapefruit lemon citrus bitter bite that revealed some tea in the aftertaste.
Overall Impression: Excitingly good, the flavours were fresher than other beers that have them.
Rating: I give it an awesome rating of 9/10, this is worth a trip to Seattle on release date next year just for this one alone (or as many as you can find)!
Food Pairing: Don’t, ride the fresh hop wave with this one and enjoy the hops in a state that is only available between late September and October.
The organic fresh hops for this beer are grown in the Cowiche Canyon in the Yakima Valley, with proceeds of their beer funding the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy. In fact this brewer seems pretty committed to sustainability which is great to see, check out their website for more details. I thought I would attach a video with a super catchy tune to this post of someone mountain biking through Cowiche Canyon just to give you and idea of the landscape, enjoy!
West Coast Beer Geek 