I mean, they put it on the internet, it has to be right…
‘Bonjour!’
Historically, that was correct, I think. I read somewhere that IPAs were only brewed in the fall. With modern refrigeration, I’m not sure that still holds.
:
: :
Interesting though. I’ve only had a couple commercial beers that claimed to be “fresh hops” but they were all very nice. 8)
:D.The Blatz does not forget.
I love me some fresh-n-wet hopping. ???
Not much better really.
I mean the combo
of green wetness with fresh from the oast plump and crinkly stank yella.
Hells yes.
A once a year beer for me to be sure.
This year a fatter DennyRIPA with wet Mt Hood and freshly dried - 2 days - of homegrown Columbus.
I spoiled it, however, with a gob of two week old dried Zeus for as a massive dry hop. :
Heh. Cheers to semantics that matter. Dry, fresh, wet. Me likey. 8)
With all due respect, their explanation is a load of shiitake mushrooms. They liken them to kitchen spices, and then totally ignore the standard nomenclature. I liken them to spices too, which is why FRESH means the undried form of the spice. WET doesn’t mean anything - you can’t buy wet basil at the grocery store, it doesn’t exist. Go to your spice merchant and tell them you want fresh sage, and by fresh you mean the stuff that was just dried. :
I love SN beers, but I refuse to drink the ones they label as having wet or fresh hops since they screw it up and do some BS gymnastics to try to explain their marketing. No no no.
You are missing some pretty good beers.
-
he is missing some average beers
-
wet hops are the ones i am dumping from my kettle
How would you differentiate between recently-kilned hops and hops that have been in storage for 6 months? “Wet” in hops means “not kilned.” “Fresh” in English means “not stale or decayed.” I agree their language could be a bit better, although I don’t know how to make it more clear.
Mr. Language Person agrees…
Colorado is all over Fresh Hops=wet and undried hops. To list a few:
-New Belgium - Fresh Hop Ale. Probably the best wetnfresh commercial IPA I have ever had.
-Left Hand Brewing - Warrior IPA. “Fresh Hop Ale” made with all Colorado grown hops flown in fresh.
-Great Divide - Colorado Fresh Hop IIPA. You guessed it…freshly picked and rushed to brewery Colorado hops.
-Tommy snotknocker - Colorado IPA Nouveau - Fresh hopped ale…Colorado freshly picked hops
AND the GABF awarding medals in the “Fresh Hop Category”…
Seems Sierra Nevada is facing a bit of marketing quandary.
But heck, they only started calling Celebration a fresh hopped ale a couple years ago. :
That dude should loose his job.
Because the tschmidlin folks aint buying due to beersematical protest.
Don’t let the marketing stubbornness cause you to not Celebrate the season. Yum. 
Cheers.
BTW, I got into some 2013 Ruthless tonight. No quandary there. 
Seems like the added more Rye this year. yackyack
My initial response is, how they differentiate between recently kilned and 6 month old hops is not my problem, they don’t get to rewrite definitions to suit their purposes. “Wet” in hops only means “not dried” because that’s how they and some other misguided fools use it, that doesn’t mean it’s right. And sure, fresh has the definition you give, but not when applied to food like fruit and herbs. Can I get some wet strawberries on my waffles? What does that even mean?
But they could use a word like “new” to denote that they have opened a new package. Or call them “first harvest” hops, or come up with some other flowery marketing stuff to describe it, that’s what the marketing nobs are for and it’s not my forte. But they don’t get to boggart words like “fresh” that already have definitions in this context and give them new ones.
I miss good beers all of the time
I don’t think the definition of “fresh” that you use is as restrictive as you think it is, even when talking about fruit: “Get fresh dried fruits and nuts like whole almonds, walnuts, papaya chunks or pistachios and pine nuts.”
http://www.pureandnaturalspices.com/
Just google “fresh herbs” or “fresh spices” and tons of people use “fresh” as an adjective to describe quality, not moisture content.
Now, if they were making “Belgium beer” I would be pissed.
You know what, if they want to call them “fresh dried hops” they would get no complaints from me. In that case, “fresh” is modifying “dried”, not “hops”. The hops are “fresh dried” - not a problem.
FWIW, I both binged and googled “fresh herbs”. I checked every link on the first page of each (ignoring the ads) and I didn’t find one that referred to fresh herbs as ones that were already dried. Some of the spices pages use it as a quality indicator.
My point is, “fresh” already has a definition with respect to hops - the undried form. You don’t make up a new use for a word (wet) just so you can redefine fresh, that’s dumb. Seriously, give me some examples where the word “wet” is used in a food context. The only one I can think of is a wet burrito, but then the hops don’t have sauce on top, do they? But that’s all I can think of when someone says they use “wet” hops.
Wet, dry, fresh, stale…gold jacket, green jacket. Aside from the dispute on nomenclature, I do have an issue with these so called “wet” hopped beers. I did try Sierra Nevada Northern Hemisphere Harvest Ale and New Holland Hopivore this year…Both claim to be “wet” hopped. Both are pretty decent beers, but if they are “wet” hopped to showcase the hops that have been harvested in the last 24 hours, why are they so caramelly? I would expect them to be hoppier rather than as malty as they are. Again, both are solid beers, but different from what I would expect from something that is brewed with freshly harvested hops.
Yeah, that wet hopped, fresh dry hopped session IPA of yours rocks! 
I know that at my grocery, I can buy undried herbs, like basil, parsley, rosemary and cilantro. They come in special packeages and are kept refrigerated. They look pretty ‘wet’ to me. I can also walk over two isles and buy dried herbs, like basil, parsley, rosemary and cilantro. It is obvious that these are dry, however, only if they are dated do you know if they are fresh. Same with the refridgerated product. I don’t know of any lingo that translates to all passions, hobbies or vocations. Like someone said, often it is about marketing and drawing attention to your product. Is Cognac really just distilled grape alcohol? Is Champaign just sparkling wine? Why have appellations and business specific lingo? Sometimes it is all that sets your product apart from another. Is there really a difference between bud/miller/coors? Billions are spent trying to convince you there is…
Dried is used as an adjective to describe the hops. Wet is an adjective used to describe the hops. Fresh is an adjective usd to describe the hops. Seems like beer enthusiasts are trying to make them nouns, like they are their own new ‘thing’. If we use our adjectives correctly in font of the nouns (hops), then there really is no confusion, although we may disagree on how long after picking hops are considered ‘fresh’. If breweries are not specific with their descriptions, then we are left to make assumptions, which is their faux pas. Wet hops can be fresh. Wet hops can be old. Dried hops can be fresh. Dried hops can be old. We just need two adjectives in front of the noun as a description of the hopping: moisture + time.
SN is pretty straightforward with their definition. Our personal definitions may differ, but they said “Fresh Hops are the freshest dried hops to come from the fields, typically within seven days of harvest.” They’re not trying to deceive people (it’s not “triple-hops brewed” or nonsense like that).
If SN were using pellets and calling them ‘wet hops’ that’d be dishonest. If they were using 6-month-old wet hops and calling them ‘fresh hops’ that’d be dishonest too. What they’re doing is a gray-area at best, but at least they define their terms.
Hops aren’t used by as many people or in as many things as any other herbs, so talking about “fresh basil” is really not relevant. Anyone can walk into the grocery store and buy “fresh basil” at any time of the year. Hops are almost never used “fresh” or “wet.” You can’t just walk into a store and buy “fresh hops.” For practical purposes, they don’t exist for 99.99999% of the people on the planet.
I never said they were trying to deceive anyone, I am saying their nomenclature is stupid. There is no such thing as a wet herb, despite their attempts to say so. It is totally unacceptable and I will not drink those beers because of it. They probably don’t care, and that’s fine. You don’t care - that’s also fine. I care.
It’s raining on my sage in my herb garden. Guess I better go out and tell my sage that it does not exist. :o