Where Have All the Flowers Gone: The 2020 Wet-Hopped Round Up

Let’s get the bad news out of the way: a summer that was alternately abnormally hot and abnormally wet lead to abnormally smaller hops yields in both Maryland and Virginia this year, which means fewer area breweries made beers with just-picked hop cones. Heat can stress hop plants, inhibiting the growth of cones, the flower part of the plant that goes into beer. Moisture, on the other hand, can lead to downy mildew on hop cones. We just can’t win. To wit, Bluejacket’s Darling Buds, made with hops from Virginia’s Whipple Creek Farms, isn’t coming out this year, and was replaced with Hill House, a Marzen-style Oktoberfest beer. Dynasty’s collaboration with soon-to-open One Family Brewing used Loudon County grown hops, but the breweries had to supplement with some from out of the area. Last year Dynasty was able to brew this beer using all-Virginia ingredients.

Why would you want a beer brewed with wet, just-picked, hops? Well, wet -hopped beers are usually more flavorful and more aromati

…