Aug. 24, 2012
Crazy Mountain Brewery in Edwards is taking its beer making
a step further with the addition of whole, fresh hops. When the bitter critters
are ready to harvest, the brewery sends a few brave souls down to Hippie Chicks
Organic Hops in Palisade to pick, sort and bag hop flowers, which are then used
to create the brewery’s new beer, Sticky Fingers.
But why go to all of the trouble when hop pellets and even
dried, whole-hop flowers are readily available without the laborious hours
spent wrangling the skin-irritating little beasts?
“As much as a chef would love to see how the food is grown
that they’re cooking with, I think it’s the same kind of philosophy,” said
Tracey Kling, sales representative at Crazy Mountain. “You get to participate
in the brew process to see how the ingredients are grown and how the hops are
made and where they come from — it’s pretty awesome.”
In order to follow this hop trip from farm to glass, you
have to start at the bine. Sometimes erroneously called hop vines, hop bines
distinguish themselves by their hooked stem hairs called trichomes, which grip
as they climb up a rod, trellis or hanging wire. The bines can grow as tall as
50 feet and die to the ground in the winter, only to start the climb anew the
next spring. During harvest, crews cut down the hop bines and strip them of
their flowers, either mechanically or by hand.
The hops are sorted to remove leaves and stems that wouldn’t
be good for the beer, Kling said. Most of the flowers, such as the ones
pictured above, are put in racks with sandy bottoms and dried. They are
conditioned and then packed into bags to be sold by the pound to brew houses
all over the state and by the ounce to enthusiastic home brewers who want to
add some Colorado flavor to their beers.
The hops that make their way into Sticky Fingers are picked
and refrigerated and must be thrown into the beer boil within 24 hours of
harvest before they start to degrade. For Kling, that meant harvesting hops
late into the night on a recent Monday and then trucking them back to Crazy
Mountain early the next morning. Less than 12 hours after being removed from
their bines, these little green goblins were tossed into a vat at the end of
the boil to become pungent, exquisite beer.
“They are more
volatile at that fresh stage, being fresh picked, and really impart an intense
flavor and aroma,” Kling said. “And that’s why you really utilize those
additions of the hops — flavor and aroma.”
From the Fest
There were a lot of great beers being poured
at Ed Fest in the Riverwalk at Edwards on Aug. 18, many of which I’ve had the
pleasure of tasting on previous occasions. Here are a few that were new to me:
>> Crazy Mountain Sticky Fingers
The crew at Crazy
Mountain put in its time at the hop farm, and the result was this fresh-hopped
beer. The aroma had that delicious, flowery hit that you only get from adding
hops late in the brewing process, and the bitter edge had the fresh feel of
crushing a hop flower in your fingers and smearing the oils on the back of your
tongue. This first 20-barrel batch was made with 200 pounds of Chinook hops,
which have a piney, citrus flavor, Kling said. The next round will feature
Cascade hops, which are known for their floral attributes.
>> Eddyline Boater Beer
After spending some time
nosing around the festival for heavy hitters and beers that sit high on the
bittering scale, Eddyline’s Boater Beer was a welcome change. True to its name,
this pale-yellow pilsner was designed with the boater in mind. It’s light, refreshing
and sessionable, and it comes in a can so you can pack it on the river for when
you inevitably have to throw back a bootie beer.
>> Bristol Compass IPA
India pale ales seem to be growing in intensity as their
popularity has exploded in the craft-beer market. It now seems like a contest
to see who can pack the most hops into a single batch of beer. Instead of
blowing it out on the bitter end, Bristol achieved a good balance when creating
the Compass IPA. This amber-colored beer has the right amount of pep from a
combination of Columbus, Chinook and Cascade hops, but you can still taste some
of those roasty malt undertones that level the brew.
Krista Driscoll
Hophead
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