Each year, the Terrapin Brewery of Athens, Georgia releases their So Fresh & So Green, Green Fresh Hop IPA. Local beer lovers scramble to get some when they do, because each year the beer features a different hop, and we all want to see what Terrapin is up to this year. In past years, Terrapin has featured the following hops:

2010: Amarillo

2011: Challenger

2012: Citra

2013: Centennial

2014: Simcoe

2015: Equinox

For 2016, Terrapin So Fresh & So Green, Green Fresh Hop IPA features Styrian Goldings, and that particularly got my attention. That’s because Styrian Goldings are an English hop variant, really derived from Fuggles rather than Goldings, and grown in Eastern Europe since the 1930s. They are often used in English style ales and are more an aroma hop than a bittering hop. I think German, Czech, and English hops are often overlooked in American brewing today in favor of new-fangled fruit loopy varieties and classic Pacific Northwest 4C hops.

In any case, the Styrian Goldings in Terrapin So Fresh & So Green, Green Fresh Hop IPA come from the Yakima Valley in Washington rather than Europe. From the can label:

Terrapin’s “So Fresh & So Green, Green” is a beer that celebrates the hop! You can’t get fresher or greener than this. Made with freshly picked, whole leaf, “wet hops” these off-the-vine beauties will encourage you to drink fresh, drink local, and drink now!

Ingredients from the website:

Malt: 2-Row Pale, Maris Otter, Munich, Honey Malt, Crystal 85

Hops: Fresh “wet” hops flown in overnight from the Yakima Valley in Washington State! The hop changes each year.

Terrapin So Fresh & So Green, Green Fresh Hop IPA has an alcohol content of 6.6% by volume with no IBU count given (well, Terrapin says for IBUs Fresh Hops Huge! On their website. My can is dated as best by 3.16.17 and I drank it on December 29^th of 2016. I paid $5.99 for the 19.2 ounce can.

Terrapin So Fresh & So Green, Green Fresh Hop IPA pours to a deep orange amber color with a thick but quickly fading head and an intensely herbal, grassy tea-like hoppy nose. Taking a sip, the beer has a light caramel maltiness up front followed by more of the wonderfully earthy, herbal aromatic hops. They do taste so fresh and really, so “green” in their grassy tea-like splendor. The beer finishes nicely bitter, but it’s the wonderful hop aroma that is really the star here.

I love English hops, and I’m inclined to overlook the $5.99 a can price to a degree because this beer is so darned good. It would get 5 stars at a better price, but I’ll give it 4 ½ all the same. It should not be missed my friends, because if you do, next year it just won’t be the same.

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