33 Acres of Ocean Fresh Hop Pale Ale: Another new BC fresh hop offering featuring fresh Centennial hops, this beer is brewed to a strength of 5.3% abv in Vancouver, BC. The brewery used their regular Pale Ale label and hand stamped the words”Fresh Hop” onto some 4300 bottles of this release. I of course, managed to get one that clearly said “Fresh Ho” on it, which made me and some other Instagram followers chuckle a few times.
Aroma and Appearance: It pours a clear golden amber colour with one finger of foam and a medium level of carbonation. The aroma is wet grass, tea leaves, bread, earth and some mild tropical mango aromatics sneak in there as the beer warms.
Flavour: This beer begins noticeably clean with a slightly bread malt note and some fresh tasting tropical passion fruit. In the middle, the fresh lemon flavoured hop oils are prominent, balanced against orange citrus and some sweet caramel malts until it finishes dry with a piney aftertaste.
Overall Impression: Like most 33 Acres beers I’ve had, nothing here is shockingly amazing, but at the same time it is decent beer that was pleasantly refreshing and enjoyable.
Rating: I give it a very good rating of 7/10, simple and straightforward with some nice tropical flavours to make it pop a little.
Food Pairing: Fish tacos or chili lime seasoned burritos would work well with the hops in the beer.
Here’s a great shot from their Facebook page of the hops they harvested from urban farmer Sole Food Farms, which is an urban landscape farm organization dedicated to transforming vacant urban space into street farms. Be sure to check them out, they have a 2016 CSA program and all kinds of cool stuff going on.
West Coast Beer Geek 