It’s got a silly name, but Red River Brewing Company‘s new fresh hop IPA (an uncommon style also known as “wet hop” or “harvest ale”) is seriously delicious. Produced using Mosaic hops that were overnighted directly from the harvest fields and have never been dried out, Gyrate is – in my completely unqualified opinion – one of the most delicious beers to be brewed to date in Shreveport-Bossier. Gyrate is on tap now at the Red River Brewing Company tasting room and will also be poured at Shreveport Brew 2017 on Saturday, Oct. 14. Like Red River Brewing Company on Facebook.
As Jared Beville of Red River Brewing Company explains it, the fresh-hopping process is all about time and freshness. Instead of using hops that have been harvested and dried out or compressed into pellets, brewers go to great pains to have hops express-delivered from the harvest field (in this case, those fields are in St. Paul, Oregon) to the brewery.
“The hops in this beer were pulled out of a field in Oregon and FedExed overnight to Red River Brewing Company. The amount of time from being harvested in the field to actually going into the beer was about 48 hours,” Beville said. “When you don’t go through the drying process, all of the oils that are in the hops stay present on the leaves. It gives you a really intense flavor and complexity.”
That flavor is big and bold, with lots of citrus and tropical, fruity notes. That flavor will fade somewhat over time, so now is the best time to get a taste of Gyrate, if you’re so inclined. Beville expects that Gyrate will be available in the tasting room for anywhere from two weeks to a month, but he adds that it was the brewery’s highest seller on Saturday, Oct. 7, when it was released.
Once it’s gone, Gyrate won’t return for at least a year, as it can only be produced during the harvest.
“It’s a once-a-year thing,” Beville said.
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