Harpoon 100 Barrel Series

So on one of my frequent trips to Wegman’s I came across this bottle from Harpoon. Now I have heard the name Harpoon through the craft beer world but I have never tried one. To me it was just another big time craft brewer like Dogfish Head, not saying that their beers aren’t fantastic, I’m just saying that they are big producers. But anyway, I probably would have past this bottle by this time too if I had not saw that it was wet hopped.

Now I have been wanted to try a beer that had been brewed with “wet” hops. Normally, hops are harvested, dried, and used in a variety of forms. Wet hopping means that they harvest the hops and within hours the fresh hops are used in the beer. So they are not dried and still contain the essential oils in the hop flowers. The reason I was so interested in this method is because I have bought 5 rhizomes of cascade hops to plant this spring and I want to try and wet hop an ale this summer. But anyway on to the review:

The beer itself poured really nice and formed a well rounded head that smelled of hops. The color was a nice bright copper and was very clear, no haze was present. The first sip was more mellow than I had expected. It was quite smooth, but had a slight oily viscosity to the mouthfeel. I’m not sure if this was because I had already biased myself by knowing about the wet hops or if it was really present, because by the third sip it was no longer noticeable. It definitely had a hoppy tasty but was no where near an IPA. It went down quite well as I was bottling up my Bock. One thing I did notice was that it gave me a headache soon after I had finished it. IT may have been from something else, but that was the only beer I had that day and after drinking it my head was bumping. But even with that being said, I would buy this beer again and give it another shot. Also, it was relatively inexpensive. It was $6.19 for the 750 ml bottle. So hop lovers, grab a bottle and shoot me your opinions. Like I said this is the first “Wet Hopped” beer I have tried, so maybe their are others out there that would give me a better opinion. Thanks.

Naps