Bridge Brewing Fresh Hopped Red IPA: Fresh hop season finally kicked off in BC in late September and there are lots of new fresh hop options in town from all the new breweries who managed to get their hands on some fresh hop cones. One of my first bottles of the season was this new one from North Vancouver, BC that was brewed to a strength of 7% abv with 80 IBUs worth of fresh Nugget, Cascade and Centennial hops grown in Chilliwack.
Aroma and Appearance: It pours a reddish copper colour with 3 fingers of foam and minimal carbonation. The aroma is quite piney at first, with big quaffs of caramel, toffee candy, malt balls, oily herbal tea leaves and a blast of lemon citrus.
Flavour: First off this is a hugely malt forward beer, featuring big toffee notes and a rye like heavy bread up front that is followed by earthy bitterness, sweet caramel, figs and grass in the middle of the beer. It finishes with a splash of lemon and grapefruit citrus and some more earthy bitterness to round it out. Not a huge fresh hop presence overall, but it’s detectable.
Overall Impression: I thought this was an interesting choice for a fresh hop beer because it’s not a style that allows the freshness to shine through in quite the same way as say a typical IPA would, however the beer itself was pretty tasty and one of the better Red IPA’s I’ve had.
Rating: I give it a very good rating of 7.5/10, not quite the 80 IBU fresh hop blast I was hoping for, but a surprisingly decent beer nonetheless.
Food Pairing: Pair this with a meaty brie cheese or a sirloin steak.
Look at all those lovely hop cones they got there, check out their Facebook Page for more details on special releases!
West Coast Beer Geek 
I liked this one more than this years IPA’s. Fresh hopped IPA’s just don’t taste like an IPA. They need to finish it with a dry hopped to get bitterness.
This was a good one, but I love me leafy oily hops so much that I ranked others higher.
Yeah i prefer hops to be bitter and fruity/piney not earthy and herbal.