By Brigid Kane-Smith, Instagram Hopwench
Every year around the last week of September Tequesta Brewing Company celebrates the hop harvest with a wonderful week called Hop Week! During this week you will find several of the breweries staple hoppy beers with added dry or wet-hopping, cask conditioning and many other different twists. Also, small batches of very creative hoppy beers that showcase different, uncommon styles. So, for the sake of my readers, I drug myself away from my overwhelming amount of school work to suffer through tasting all of these hoppy beers (can you sense the sarcasm?).
Black IPA with Simcoe and Mosaic wet hops, Double IPA with white peaches and mosaic wet hops and Belgian Tripel cask with slow gin berries, French Oak and Centennial Wet Hops.
Everyday had 2 or 3 different special beers. Some of the highlights include an American Rye IPA wet hopped twice with Cascade and Simcoe. The little bit of spiciness from the rye with all of the awesome citrus flavors from the cascade and Simcoe; this was such an amazing beer to drink that was so perfectly balanced. There were dueling black IPA casks, one normal and one with Simcoe dry hops. A Belgian Tripel cask with sloe gin berries, aged in French oak wine barrels and Centennial wet hops. This was incredible, probably my favorite for the week. This beer was hard to describe, the slight spiciness from the sloe gin berries, the slight wine flavor from the oak barrel and the hoppy sweetness from the Belgian Tripel. I couldn’t stop drinking this beer, it was just too damn good!
Session IPA with Tamarind and Amarillo dry hops in the front and Double IPA with Mosaic wet hops in the back.
The final day of the week had two extremely tasty beers as well. It was impossible to choose which of these I enjoyed more. There was the Gnarly Barley (an American Pale Ale) Brett sour, barrel aged then put on Centennial wet hops. I have had a few hoppy beers treated with different bacteria in the past and very few of them were palatable to me. This one was by far the best, the sour aspect didn’t take away from the hoppyness of the beer, instead it just added another flavor that worked perfectly with the other flavors in the beer. It was so pleasant to drink. Then there was the Double IPA with jalapenos and Equinox wet hops. The jalapenos were done right, they didn’t taste like the skin, they just gave a nice little fire to the beer that lingered on the back of the tongue. This bite was such a nice angle that was added to an already wonderfully citrusy Double IPA. Sunday ended up being a day without studying because of these two beers!
Gnarly Barley with Equinox wet hops and Black IPA run through the Randal packed with Equinox wet hops.
Other highlights from Hop Week included fresh hop vines hanging from the ceiling and wrapped around the taps. A spotlight on Equinox hops which is a newer hop variety that adds a really nice lemon and lime flavor. It was very apparent when the Black IPA was run through a Randall of Equinox hops and I was able to compare the beer with and without the extra hops. But, the biggest thing that this year’s Hop Week did was ruin my palate for a week in the happiest way!
Cheers!
Brigid Kane-Smith
Hi! My name is Brigid and I am a craft beer fanatic! I am 30 years old, work at a local brewery here in South Florida and am currently in nursing school. My love affair with beer began in 2011 when I worked at Yard House and I quickly became obsessed. Also, I am married to an amazing man who is equally obsessed with beer and is my partner-in-crime for all of my beer adventures. I am a certified beer server and am undecided about whether to get my Certified Cicerone.
My motto, “I would be a lot thinner if I didn’t drink, but why?”
Find me on Instagram as Hopwench
