Fresh Hops are on the Menu
Oh how we look forward to this time of year. Matt’s family has an old farm north of Ann Arbor that is mostly covered in wooded hills and remnants of old orchards. In fact, that farm is where we got most of the wood for our taproom - take a look around next time you’re here. There’s a small field though that is gardened by a family friend - it has a raspberry patch, a jungle of tomatoes, and about 4 rows of hops. Every fall, around Labor Day weekend, those hops are at peak readiness, which means we have just a few days to drive over, set up a tent, and begin the fresh hop harvest. Greg, the family friend, cuts down the bines, brings them over to the shady tent, and we get to work plucking hops flowers from the bines.
This year we harvested Centennial, Cascade and Chinook hops. The bines didn’t grown quite as tall as some years (there was a long dry spell in there without much access to water), but the buds were big and beautiful - some as big as our thumbs. Once they’re plucked, the timer starts… we try to get them from the farm back to Bløm in downtown Ann Arbor and into the tank they’re going to flavor within a few hours. The faster, the better.
Matt always makes sure that whatever batch they’re going into is timed so that it’s ready for hops as soon as we harvest. This year, we added those fresh hops to small batches of our Apple Cyser. The Cyser is essentially a mead/cider hybrid. In our version, it’s very light, bring, and has just a touch of acidity from the cider. The ultimate refresher. We took the Cascade hops and added them to one batch, then combined the Centennial and Chinook hops and added them to another batch so folks could do a side-by-side comparison.
We let the Cyser rest on the fresh hops for about a week, tasted it, and confirmed we’d gotten maximum flavor out of those hops - success. The Cascade batch came out with flavors of grapefruit, pine and pineapple. The Centennial + Chinook batch has flavors of grass, watermelon and weed. Both are over the top fresh.
Come on over and have yourself a pour! Maybe one of each so you can sample the differences for yourself?
