deschutes fresh hop pale ale

[drengel]

anyone else had this? its in bombers right now as a harvest season seasonal. i've never been a big fan of deschutes and this beer is no different. although the hop taste/aroma is alright, the crystal hops don't cut it for me, just a little boring. my main complaint is that there is no bitterness. im not even a fan of super bitter pale ales or IPA's, i like more focus on hop flavor and aroma, but a pale ale has to have some level of bitterness to it, and this beer is seriuosly lacking in it, it tastes like slightly alcoholic and carbonated hop tea, not like the good pale ale it could be. any other opinions...

 

[david_42]

Low bitterness is a common problem in fresh/wet hopped ales. Add to that, crystal is only 5% AA dried, that would be down around 1% wet. I had it last month when it was right off the field fresh and it was great. At this point in time most of the flavor notes from wet hopping are gone, leaving an under-bittered IPA, more like an English style IPA than the big left-coast hopping we expect.

 

[drengel]

interesting...i guess i should have had it about a month ago, but i like my pale ale better anyways. thats interesting about the difference between using completely fresh hops and the ones we get from the LHBS