In this week’s edition of the beer blog, we will be focusing a little bit more on brewing techniques rather than the typical style profiles (this might be a little technical for some of you out there, but I will try and keep it simple). When brewing beer, there is multiple times at which you add hops for different effects on the beer. Taking Dogfish Head for example, they have a 60/90/120 Minute IPAs. What this is referring to how long the boiling of the wort is (and for Dogfish, how long they are continually adding hops to the wort (unfermented beer)). Typically, you add your “bittering addition hops” at the very beginning of the boil and you add your “aroma hop addition” right before the end of the boil. Think of the bittering addition as taste hops and the aroma addition as the smelling hops. Now that we have this basic principal out of the way, we can get into our beer selection of the week and how this takes effect on the brewing of the beer. Our selection this week is Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale. For those of you who do not homebrew, hops can come in two forms: pelletized or fresh. The vast majority of hops manufacturers (and home brewers) are going too pelletized. Why you ask? Because pelletized hops are compressed, taking up less space and giving you more bang for your buck. Great Divide Fresh Hop is now using freshly picked hops, which as far as weight quantity goes, requires 4 to 5 times more hops! However, the end product is going to be totally different by using fresh hops. The beer will be more floral as far as the aroma because the hops are fresh and have not gone through any processing procedures. They are also able to retain more of the oils that add to flavor because of this. Expect a more organic taste with hints of citrus, but still the sweetness you expect from good pale ale that finishes very crisp and clean. If you have never tried a fresh hopped beer, you are in for a treat from Great Divide Fresh Hop Pale Ale. As their slogan goes; “Great Minds Drink Alike.” Cheers!