Phantom Fall and Cave Ridge: 2011 Fresh Hop Pales.

Available now, for the mountainBeers;  coming soon at the brewery and bars near you.

Fresh hop ales. As the weather turns (like it or not), in the mountains we turn our thoughts from green meadows and nice rock to snowy adventures and finding all of the finest powder and “freshies” we can. One of the more popular places to go is Snoqualmie pass for the winter playground. Snoqualmie Mountain, the tallest mountain in the area, is a great mountain for non-aided winter recreation. Phantom falls is a great face to ski on the SW side of the mountain and cave ridge is the standard climbing/snow shoe route up the ridge on the S.  Whatever your winter mountain activity, Snoqualmie mountain offers a great, accessible venue to find your freshies!

The Beer(s).  In the city we think of this time for the harvest and preparing for times of fewer spoils. Hops are harvested once a year in September, which is the only time you can use them fresh. (Well, unless you overnight them from New Zealand in March or so like a well known brewery in Bend, amongst others.) We decided to make two fresh hop beers and tried to pair the specific hop strains to different pale ales, using the hops in complementary roles.

• Phantom Falls Belgo pale.  This beer has a base of a belgo style pale ale. The malts are simple, creating a basic pale ale, while the yeast imparted a Belgian character. We used fresh cascade hops that have a delicate floral/citrus character that blends with the yeast character.

• Cave ridge rye.  Cave ridge rye was made with 30% rye, which dries out the beer and imparts its own character in the beer. We wanted the rye to come through, so we used a neutral yeast which imparted little additional flavor. We used simcoe fresh hops in this one, giving it a slight piney taste and acidity in the beer. While some might find a strange pairing, we thought the pine character would help dry out the beer and really complement the rye character.