Harvest

This style-spanning yearly celebration of the harvest is brewed in many ways and in many places—but the best place in the world to appreciate fresh-hopped beers is the Pacific Northwest.

Christine Walter, owner and head cidermaker at Bauman’s Cider in Gervais, Oregon, makes both traditional and modern ciders using apples and other fruits sourced as locally as possible. Here, she shares her process for transforming red-fleshed, acid-forward Mountain Rose apples into complex yet balanced heritage ciders.

Harvest-hopped beers are a seasonal delight no longer limited to breweries near the hop fields—nor even to the harvest season. Here’s a look at the logistics and tech that are expanding the harvest in time and space.

Brewers wouldn't get their hops—fresh or otherwise—without the unusual machines that pick them. Here’s a look at how these pickers work on a few different farms.

Join Single Hill cofounder and head brewer Zach Turner on an expedition to the Yakima Valley at harvest time to pick up the freshest hops, then take them back to the brewery and add them—in different forms and different ways—to beers brewed on the same day.

It’s all about freshness and the preservative powers of antioxidants. Here, Westbound & Down director of brewing operations Jake Gardner explains why they believe they’ve gotten longer-lasting, more aromatic IPAs by choosing hops picked earlier in the harvest.

Bale Breaker’s location on the family hop farm, Loftus Ranches, offers proximity and access to hops of which many brewers could only dream. Brewmaster Kevin Smith shares perspective on brewing hop-forward beers, gleaned from decades growing up on—and now brewing on—the farm.

Ready to rodeo? With its immediate proximity to the bulk of American hop-growing—and the ability to drive to nearby farms at harvest time and see what’s freshly picked—Zach Turner and his team at Single Hill Brewing are perfecting fresh-hopped beers.

Here we depict the most-grown hops (by acres harvested) in the Pacific Northwest from 2014 to 2019, showing the top 10 each year. The width of each band represents the number of acres grown that year; one inch is about 6,500 acres.

Growing and maintaining a yeast colony, feeding yeast between brews, planning brew days to maximize yeast health.

Try this tasty wet-hops harvest ale recipe from Crazy Mountain Brewing Company in Vail, Colorado.