Hops are the one great beer spice. They are not used for anything else besides spicing beer and the varieties are almost endless! Dried hops, which, though more stable after they're dried, lose some of the aromatic oils in the hops. So why not create a beer abounding in all of that fresh, oily goodness? If you can pick and brew with those hops within 48 hours, all that extra oil can be soaked up in the beer to make a richer hop flavor. Add in that the fresh hops we used are Salmon Safe (the hop growers are focused on keeping the water clean downstream from the hop fields), and you have a winner of a beer both taste- and environment-wise!
Salmon Safe Oregon Hops: In a nutshell, it's all about keeping the water clean at and downstream of agricultural areas. To get the certification, the farmer has to do a number of things, including: only use approved pesticides; only have pesticides applied by trained individuals; plant more than 100 feet from any waterway, have stormwater mitigation so that runoff from the fields goes into the ground and not a waterway. Visit salmonsafe.org for detailed information.
IBU: 65