Sorry today's post is going up so late. It's been a busy day of website publishing over here. Anyways. Today's beer is a fresh hop ale, otherwise known as a harvest ale. Most of the time the hops used in beer have either been dried or pelletized. Drying and pelletizing makes hops more stable and able to be stored. However, in the fall, and in this case, in the spring, hops can be harvested fresh and thrown straight into the beer. These beers really put the flavors and aromas of these fresh off the vine hops. The hops in this specific beer have been on quite a journey. In the southern hemisphere, hop harvest takes place in the spring. These hops were harvested in New Zealand, dried, flown to Chico, California, and were thrown into the brew kettle in just a little over a week's time. Pretty wild stuff. Also, this is one of the most gorgeous labels on any beer I've had for the blog. I like to imagine that all of the hops came over on that beautiful ship. Doubt they'd be able to make it in a week though. To the beer!
