260: Zach Turner of Single Hill is the Fresh Prince of Yakima

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09/17/22 • 79 min

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Perhaps no brewery in the world is as dedicated to fresh-hopped beers as Single Hill in Yakima, Washington. Led by cofounder and head brewer Zach Turner, the Single Hill team leans into vibrantly hopped IPAs all year long—and their Mind Plant double IPA was first runner-up at last year’s Alpha King Challenge—but harvest time is when their strengths and expertise really get to shine. That’s when Turner shifts focus to fresh-hopped beers, driving to farms around the Yakima Valley to see which varieties are freshly picked, rushing the wet cones back to the brewery to pour into the mash tun-turned-hopback, and gathering freshly kilned (but not yet baled) whole-cone hops that they pelletize themselves for the whirlpool and dry hop. The running event throughout the season is the Fresh Hop Rodeo, when Single Hill collaborates with brewers across the country on a series of fresh-hopped beers that compete for the love of local customers.

Single Hill’s singular fresh-hop focus is succeeding: Their Energy Cone IPA was the gold medal–winning fresh-hop beer at last year’s Great American Beer Festival, and their fame and respect for these beers is growing beyond the region.

In this episode, Turner opens the book on his process and approach to fresh-hopped beers, including:

flexibility and serendipity in pick windows and varieties
pelletizing their own hops at the brewery
utilizing lower temperatures for wet-hop contact, to limit vegetal flavors
fermenting fresh-hop IPAs with a variety of yeasts
brewing both hazy and West Coast fresh-hop iterations
their experimenter system that splits a 15-barrel brew into three different fermentations
new and exciting hop varieties on the horizon

And more.

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In this episode, Turner opens the book on his process and approach to fresh-hopped beers, including:

flexibility and serendipity in pick windows and varieties
pelletizing their own hops at the brewery
utilizing lower temperatures for wet-hop contact, to limit vegetal flavors
fermenting fresh-hop IPAs with a variety of yeasts
brewing both hazy and West Coast fresh-hop iterations
their experimenter system that splits a 15-barrel brew into three different fermentations
new and exciting hop varieties on the horizon

And more.

This episode is brought to you by:

Arryved (https://www.arryved.com): Get 25 percent off all hardware when you launch with Arryved before December 1st, 2022. Go to Arryved.com/cbb to set up a free, customized demo.

Support Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast

Previous Episode

259: Gabe Fletcher of Anchorage Brewing Deals With The Devilish Details of Barrel-Aged Barleywine

Anchorage Brewing’s Gabe Fletcher has been turning heads with barleywine since he brewed his first one 24 years ago, but that long-standing respect hasn’t dulled his sense of exploration. Today, he’s pushing limits with barrel aging by double- and triple-casking beers over long conditioning times. It takes a hardy beer to stand up to that much age, and Fletcher builds his barleywine to last.

In this episode, taken from an interview earlier this year for a story in Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine, Fletcher outlines the various problems in brewing high-ABV beers, and shares the creative solutions he’s developed. Along the way, he discusses:

Fermentation strategy via overpitching and aggressive step-up batching
Embracing simple but flavorful malt
Using decoction to build flavor in more basic malts
Building a high-gravity wort
Selecting hops for flavor and not just bitterness
Utilizing multi-stage barrel aging for more depth of character
Finishing and packaging barleywine for maximum effect

And more.

This episode is brought to you by:

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Next Episode

261: Hop Development Roundtable with Jason Perrault and Michael Ferguson of HBC

HBC, the Hop Breeding Company, is responsible for developing some of the most compelling hop varieties in contemporary beer—Mosaic, Citra, Talus, and Sabro are just a few of the aroma hops that they’ve developed. But how does a new hop variety come into being, and what drives its development? In this episode, Jason Perrault of Yakima Chief Ranches and Michael Ferguson of John I. Haas, two leading hop breeders in Yakima Valley and the driving forces behind the two-pronged HBC program, talk about what it takes to develop a new hop variety.

They discuss:

the typical decade-long timeline for developing a new hop variety
defining objectives for new hops, from agronomic efficiency and yield to aromatic potency
taking plants from seeds crossed from two promising parents, through single plant, 7 plant, and larger field plantings
positive and negative selection for desirable and undesirable traits
evaluating new hops using a consistent base recipe in test brewing
achieving elite status and finding brewer champions for new varieties

And more.

This episode is brought to you by:

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