Wet hopping

What is actually happening

Almost all brewing hops are kilned within hours of harvest, because undried hops are eighty per cent water and begin to compost. Kilning is what makes hops a storable commodity, and it also drives off the most volatile part of the aroma.

A wet-hopped beer skips that. The character is grassy, green and resinous in a way dried hops of the same variety are not, and it is genuinely different rather than simply fresher.

The constraints are severe and are the point. The hops must reach the brewery the same day, so the brewery has to be near the farm; five to ten times the weight is needed for the same bitterness because most of it is water; and the window is a few weeks a year.

Styles where this step is decisive

• American pale ale4.5–6.2% ABV

  The beer that defined American craft brewing: clean pale malt under bright citrus and pine hop character, balanced rather than extreme.

• American IPA5.5–7.5% ABV

  The defining modern craft beer: intense citrus, tropical and resinous hop aroma over a lean malt base, finishing firmly bitter.

Related steps and concepts

• Kilning — What wet hopping deliberately skips.
• Dry hopping — A different way of chasing fresh aroma.