Restaurants are constantly responding to diners’ growing demands for fresh produce, but that’s not why Front Street Brewery brewmaster Kevin Kozak decided to obtain fresh hops for a new beer due this fall.
 
The Citra hops Kozak will receive within 24 hours after they are harvested from the ground in Washington state will give fresh flavor and wonderful aroma to the low-alcohol pale ale Kozak has in mind.
 
“It’s very kind of citrusy; it can be almost a little tangeriny, grapefruity,” Kozak said.
 
The brewmaster scheduled the September hop delivery at the urging of a beer-making friend he worked with at a Washington, D.C., brewery. His curiosity peaked, Kozak started researching the process of using fresh hops as opposed to the usual dried hops.
 
Kozak explained that because the hops are fresh, their flavor will not be as concentrated as dried. Therefore, about 50 pounds of fresh hops will be required compared to the 15 pounds of dried hops Kozak often uses for brewing.
 
Later, Kozak said, he may be able to source fresh hops on the East Coast. Kinston’s Mother Earth Brewing has a hops plot, and Kozak noted that hop farms have popped up in Asheville. Problem is hops take about three years to produce a crop, so finding fresh hops closer to home will take time, Kozak said.
 
In other Front Street news, the brewery on June 16 tapped Vintage Hall, a Black Imperial IPA (India pale ale) created by the winner of the brewery’s February homebrew competition. Amateur beer maker James Lafferty, a Marine based in Jacksonville, took the contest’s pale ale/IPA gold medal and best in show award.
 
Black Imperial IPAs get their color from roasted malts, but hops and bitterness are the dominant flavors. Lafferty’s version has 7.9 percent alcohol by volume.
 
“He came in and brewed it with us,” Kozak said of Lafferty. “And it tastes really good.”