Deschutes Hop Trip Fresh Hop Pale Ale: Brewed in Bend, Oregon this fresh hop pale ale comes in at a strength of 6.1% abv with 38 IBUs featuring Bravo, Centennial and fresh Crystal hops. As labelled, these hops are picked fresh and rushed to the brewery and used within 4 hours of harvesting. I’ve updated the picture in this review to reflect the new label and change in hop profile, however I didn’t find the flavour to be significantly different than 2014.
Aroma and Appearance: This pours a nice clear copper colour with two fingers of foam and some sporadic small carbonation bubbles. The aroma is lemon citrus, passion fruit, tangerine, bready malt, nectarines and just an overall tropical smell that is wonderful.
Flavour: Starts with a nice bready caramel malt with some juicy fresh tangerine in the middle that has hints of hop oils and a side of pine. It finishes very dry with a lemon peel and grapefruit citrus bitter aftertaste.
Overall Impression: A bit mind blowing how much the hops shine through at 38 IBUs, just great stuff and by far one of the best true Pale Ales on the market.
Rating: I give it an excellent rating of 8.5/10, worth searching for.
Food Pairing: Keep it clean and enjoy the fresh hops.
I have always enjoyed Deschutes beer, many of their main stream favourites are excellent and I love that they keep on innovating. Here’s a product shot from their Facebook Page celebrating the release of this beer, by far it’s the best 6 pack fresh hop beer out of Oregon.
West Coast Beer Geek 