In early September 2025, devotees of fresh-hopped beer may have felt a disturbance in the Force.
On September 6, the Instagram page of Seattle’s Cloudburst sent the first ripple with this post (which sounded exactly like founder-brewer Steve Luke):
“Some breweries (more and more, why god, why?!) will make fresh/wet hop beers by conditioning finished beer on these hop cones for a few days (with no fresh/wet hops used on the brew day) and then release these beers as fresh-/wet-hop IPAs. This is a process called ‘cold side,’ and it’s why you see these beers out so quickly in the market after seeing farm/hop pics. To us, this is cutting corners and does not result in the truest examples of the style.”
Two days later, the Instagram page of Varietal Beer in Sunnyside, Washington, reacted (this time channeling Varietal cofounder-brewer Chris Baum):
“We wanted to weigh in and correct some misinformation that has been spread recently; some breweries have been confusing opinions with facts. ... Adding fresh, wet cones to finished beer, otherwise known as a ‘cold-side fresh hop,’ is one of the best ways a person can enjoy the peak freshness of the hop flower!”
Peace-loving hop Jedi could breathe easier the next day when Varietal’s Instagram showed Luke and Baum clowning around during a collab at Bale Breaker in Yakima. However, the process questions raised by this “feud” are not going away—and there are others to consider.
For example: Must a beer contain recently picked, unkilned hops—otherwise known as “wet” hops—to be called “fresh-hopped?” How do hot-side and cold-side wet-hopped beers differ? And has seasonal creep infected fresh-hopped beers, causing examples just hitting their prime to languish on the shelf?