Every year, soon after hop harvest, we get the brewing world’s equivalent of Beaujolais nouveau—with a perennial burst of fresh-hop beers. To make it happen, many brewers try to get their mitts on freshly picked “wet” hops as quickly as possible before those hops begin to degrade. The logistics involved can be dramatic.
However, a Seattle-based manufacturer of low-atmosphere containers recently made an eye-opening announcement: Its product had preserved fresh-picked, unprocessed hops not just for hours or a few days, but for six weeks.
That company, called RipeLocker, says it conducted the test in cooperation with Yakima Valley’s CLS Farms and Connecticut-based Thomas Hooker Brewing. The hop dealer Yakima Quality Hops helped to facilitate the collaboration.