Fresh Kicks #2 Runs on Anchovy, a Hop That Tastes Like Watermelon

There is an experimental hop called Anchovy, and two breweries in two countries reached for the same word to describe it this week: watermelon. Sidekick's second Hazy Rotator is built around it.

Style: Hazy IPA
Release Date: 2026-09-08
ABV: 6.5%
Sidekick Brewing (Chilliwack, BC)

There is an experimental hop called Anchovy. By every account so far, it does not taste like anchovies.

Sidekick Brewing has built the second entry in its Hazy Rotator series around it. Fresh Kicks Hazy IPA #2 runs 6.5 percent and 31 IBU, hopped with Anchovy alongside Citra and Motueka. The Chilliwack brewery describes expressive Anchovy hops bringing juicy watermelon and bright citrus notes, wrapped in a soft, plush haze.

Watermelon is an unusual note to hang on a hop, and Sidekick is not the only brewery reaching for the word. The same experimental variety appeared this week in a pale ale from Blackfoot River Brewing Company in Helena, Montana, which listed watermelon among its own tasting notes. Two breweries in two countries, working independently, arriving at the same descriptor for the same unfamiliar hop is about as close to corroboration as a tasting note is ever likely to get.

The rest of the bill is better charted. Citra covers the citrus and tropical end. Motueka is a New Zealand variety with a lime-forward, lightly herbal character. Neither is a hop anyone would describe as watermelon, which leaves Anchovy carrying that part of the description by itself.

Bitterness sits low at 31 IBU. That is ordinary for the format, and it matters here for a specific reason: in a hazy IPA the hops are working on aroma and flavor rather than bite, and a note as delicate as watermelon is precisely the sort of thing a heavy bitterness load would erase.

The brewery seems aware the hop needs some explaining. Alongside the release it pointed drinkers at a video of its own staff tasting the beer, filed under the question everyone was going to ask anyway.

Fresh Kicks Hazy IPA #2 is in stock now at the Vedder Mountain Road taproom.

Editor’s Take

Somewhere there is a person who looked at a promising new hop, considered its juicy watermelon character and its bright citrus lift, and wrote down the word Anchovy. I would very much like to buy that person a drink. Experimental hops normally go by numbers - a breeding line, a trial code, something with a slash in it - specifically so that nobody forms an opinion before the plant is ready to defend itself. Naming one after a small oily fish is either an act of tremendous confidence or the finest prank in the history of plant breeding, and the industry is better off either way.

Sidekick plainly understands what it has been handed. Rather than list the hop quietly and hope the question never came up, the brewery filmed its own staff tasting the thing and captioned the result with a bewildered "Wait... Anchovy hops?!" That is the correct response. A beer carrying a genuinely good story should be allowed to tell it, at volume. Put it next to something salty and enjoy watching people read the can a second time.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.