Wet hop and you don’t stop

Put the pumpkin ales aside and save the märzens for Munich, there’s only one fall flavor I’m after: wet hops.

Hops, the female flowers that add aroma and bitterness to beer, are harvested from mid-August through the end of September then dried, often pelletized, and stored for brewers to use throughout the year. But during the magical few weeks of the autumn harvest, some brewers take advantage of the grassy, earthy essence available by using fresh, wet hops.

Here’s where you can whet your wet hop whistle this season:

Barley’s Brewing Company has a wet hopped beer on tap right now – though it won’t be around for much longer. Brewmaster Angelo Signorino divided 12 pounds of Cascade hops from Second Son Hopyard in Canton between two kegs of Pale Ale the day after they were picked.

North High Brewing also has a wet hopped beer currently available, a Black IPA.

Wolf’s Ridge Brewing is brewing a wet hopped beer this Thursday, to be released in about three weeks. The extra pale ale named “Cone and Bine” will use wet Cascade and Citra hops.

Land-Grant Brewing is working on two different wet hop beers. One, a small pilot batch with fresh hops from Grandpop’s Hops in Marysville; the second, a large batch using wet hops from out west. Release date TBA.

Zauber Brewing will release a small batch of wet hopped Awesome Mix session IPA on Thursday, September 24.

Columbus Brewing Company is launching later this month Ohio Fresh Hop, a Red IPA with Centennial, Cascade & fresh Ohio hops from South Salem’s Wisecup Farms

full disclosure: Zauber is a client