Addendum for the 2017 & 2018 version; see below.
I’m pulling extra shifts at the grill, my choice of venue for pouring and talking about craft beers that have been sent to me for my comment (that’s a disclaimer right there!). I have some seasonal IPA’s that should be really be dissected while still fresh, so here I am on a Friday morning, grilling Italian sausage for later today. Besides, I get much better light for my photos in the middle of the day.
Lagunitas Brewing Co. has sent a sample of the latest in their “One Hitter” series: Born Yesterday, a variant of their original Dogtown Pale Ale, loaded with wet hops. That is to say, hops were picked and flown directly to the brew kettle without waiting to be dried and packed as normal. Such a beer is also called “green hops,” “harvest hops,” etc. Lagunitas’ traditional marginal note on the label border mention hops varietals like Mosaic, Amarillo, Equinox, and “other special varieties curated by the great men and women who ply the lands and trellis’ of the Yakima Valley in Washington State.” In other words, relatively new Pacific Northwest hops known for their pungency. As with any fresh-hopped beer, they are shipped freshly bottled and its recommended you have them now. Mine came from the Chicago brewery and has a “Born On” date of Oct. 17. I’m drinking it on Oct. 21.
Original review, October 21, 2016: What we have poured here is a very cloudy yellow beer, almost wit-like in body, under a puffy white head that dwindles away, leaving some sudsy legs around the rim. Pine resin predominated the smell, with some notes of tangerine and grapefruit in the background.
There’s no poetic way to say; the taste is a hop monster. bursting with pine and bitterness, and citrus. Sometimes, a green-hopped beer can get notes of grass or vegetation in it, but that does not show here at all. The difference must be that this was boiled with wet hops, but not dry-hopped. And despite that unfiltered haze, there’s no yeast bite in the way either.
The whole effect is something like rubbing some fresh cones in your hands, getting those little yellow bits of lupulins all over, and taking a big sniff. In fact, that’s pretty good therapy! Lagunitas has a web page for the beer showing some big sniffs on video.
2017 Version: Again, I couldn’t make the “Born yesterday” event at Lagunitas’ Tap Room & Sanctuary on Monday, October 16th. But again, my work hours kept me from going to many beery events. And I’m already using my “skip work” chit to go to another event on Thursday, which I’ll write about later. But here it is Wednesday the 18th, and Lagunitas dropped a box with the 2017 Born yesterday at my doorstep. This was bottled on the 16th. Seems only fair I should open it right now.
Just a little haze in this edition. The smell is more piney hop, but with more of a note of tropical fruit. The hop bill described on the label is the same as last year’s. The taste again is big on hops, but as with the nose, I get more pine and tropical fruit that I nited last year. A great fresh hop smell stays in the glass as I tip it down further. A fresh hop IPA is a lovely seasonal thing, and it would be fun to sample several at once.
2018 Version: Lagunitas sent the 2018 “Born Yesterday” this week. “Born on 10/8/18,” tasting 10/17/18. Here we go:
Big tropical fruit and pine resin under the cap. Some mango as I pour, then the pine comes back strong. The color is a pale lager yellow, with plenty of bubble supporting a fizzy head. Taste has a lot of bitterness to it, with the fruity hop staying in the nose rather than the palate. This year’s boasts Mosaic, Amarillo, Equinox and other hop varietals, as before. A little alcohol and malts peeks out toward the end, but the focus stays on a bright, bitter but not grassy fresh hop taste.
