I'm always up for a hop trip, especially when the "trip" only involves driving down to Kelly's, where Deschutes Hop Trip has arrived on the shelves. Hop Trip is a "fresh hop" style beer, which is essentially a beer that has whole hops that were harvested brewed into the beer rather than using hop pellets. This process results in a beer that is more earthy tasting and rather muted compared to an over the top IPA. Fellow beer geek Marcus and I were discussing this style and came to the conclusion that the fresh hops do the same to the beer as fresh herbs add to a food recipe: dried herbs are more potent than fresh and add a sharper flavor to the dish, much as the hop pellets make more more bite in an IPA. I have had this beer twice in the last year; the first after finding the only bottle in a liquor store in Eureka, CA and the second on tap at Falling Rock in Denver, CO. The bottled version may have been from 2006 because I bought it in August 2007 and I don't think it is released that early in the year. The draft version was, well, fresh, and while I could taste the hops it didn't ruin my palate before I drank any other beer that evening.
I found this beer at Kelly's on Wyoming and paid $4.99 for the 22 oz. bottle.
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