Name: Community Harvest Fresh Hop Ale
Brand: Mother Road Brewing Company
Availability: InStock

The hops in this one did not come from a hop farm. They came from Flagstaff.

More than eight pounds of freshly harvested, locally grown hops went into this year's Community Harvest Fresh Hop Ale at Mother Road Brewing Company, contributed by members of the community. Some of them were picked by the brewery's own crew at Northern Arizona University's greenhouse garden. The beer returns Tuesday at 6.6 percent.

That sourcing is the story, and it is a meaningfully different thing from what "fresh hop" usually signals. The category depends on speed: hops go into the beer undried, within hours or a day of coming off the bine, which is why most fresh hop beers are brewed in partnership with a commercial farm and timed around a same-week shipment. Mother Road has solved the same freshness problem in the opposite direction, by shortening the distance to nearly nothing. Hops grown around town do not need to be shipped at all.

The tradeoff is control. A brewery buying a contracted lot knows the variety, the quantity and the oil content before the truck arrives. A brewery accepting whatever the neighbourhood and a university greenhouse have grown gets a genuinely variable input, which makes this an annual beer that cannot repeat itself exactly.

Mother Road describes the result as golden and moderately hazy, with bright citrus, tropical fruit and fresh green hop flavors. A soft, bready malt character carries it through to a crisp finish.

That green, slightly vegetal note in the brewery's description is the signature of undried cones, and it is the reason these beers are worth catching promptly - the character fades as the beer sits. A soft bready malt base is the sensible call underneath it, since there is nothing in the way of the hops. On the table, this would do well next to something salty and fried, or sharp young cheese.

Community Harvest Fresh Hop Ale returns Tuesday, September 29, at Mother Road Brewing Company on South Mikes Pike in Flagstaff.

Editor’s Take

Eight pounds is a rounding error to a commercial hop farm. To a town, it is a genuine haul - dozens of people walking a carrier bag of cones down to a brewery because the bine on the back fence finally did something. That is the part I find quietly excellent about this beer. The supply chain is people you could run into at the grocery store.

It also means the recipe cannot really be a recipe. A fresh hop beer built on a contracted lot arrives as a known quantity, same farm, same variety, same week every year. This one arrives as whatever Flagstaff's gardens and a university greenhouse happened to produce, in whatever proportions turned up, and the brewers work out the beer from there. Doing that on purpose, annually, and putting your own crew on picking duty at the NAU garden is a considerably harder way to make a seasonal release than phoning an order in. The reward is a beer that could not be brewed anywhere else, which is the thing every fresh hop beer claims and this one can actually support.

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.

Community Harvest Runs on Eight Pounds of Backyard Hops

More than eight pounds of hops grown by Flagstaff locals, plus a batch the brewery's own crew picked at Northern Arizona University's greenhouse garden, went into Mother Road's returning Community Harvest Fresh Hop Ale. It pours Tuesday at 6.6 percent.

Source & Editorial