A Labor of Love

By Ben Keene
November 2021 

It’s about 150 miles from Fremont to the Yakima Valley, North America’s largest hop growing region. To us, it’s a place that’s tantalizingly close and teeming with possibilities. Every year since 2010, just before the summer heat gives way to fall’s cooler temperatures, we’ve made the drive over the Cascades to walk the fields that contain the hops we use in Cowiche Canyon. Grown organically without pesticides on property owned by the Britt family, these climbing bines bring something truly special to our limited release fresh hop ale.

“The first time we went down there we had a picnic and hiked through the canyon,” says Matt Lincoln, director of brewery operations. “It’s a pretty magical spot. The canyon is maybe a quarter of a mile wide—it’s just this really beautiful area.”

That year, with help from Carpenter Ranches, roughly 150 pounds of organic Simcoe hops and organic Citra hops were harvested and hauled to our brewery within 24 hours to brew a 15-barrel batch of Cowiche Canyon Organic Fresh Hop Ale. It was our first fresh hop beer, and we tapped it at the Yakima Fresh Hop Ale Festival. Over time, the half acre field expanded to four acres, and the Britts added plots of Mosaic and Ekuanot next to the rows of Simcoe and Citra plants. In 2021, we trucked 5,500 pounds of fresh hops west over the mountains to brew more than 150 barrels of Cowiche Canyon as well as another 30 barrels of a hazy version for the Urban Beer Garden.

“We try to have the malt be there, but sort of take a back seat,” says Lincoln, explaining the current recipe. “And we definitely use more hops than we used to because we like a heavy, saturated hop character. For Cowiche we do use a few specialty malts like Munich and Carapils, but we keep them to a minimum.”

Pale amber in color with the captivating aroma of citrus, pine, fresh cut grass, and ripe tropical fruit, Cowiche Canyon is a hop-forward, moderately bitter beer built on a malt foundation that provides just enough sweetness to maintain balance. We think it’s delicious, but you don’t have to take our word for it—Men’s Journal called it one of the best beers in America.

Suffice it to say we’re immensely proud of Cowiche Canyon, the first Salmon Safe beer in the state, but even if it never receives another award or accolade, we’ll keep brewing this fresh hop favorite. For one thing, we love hops, and we’re grateful that the Britts and the Carpenters asked us to partner with them to showcase their organic varieties. Plus, we want to continue to help support the Cowiche Canyon Conservancy by donating a portion of all sales of the beer to their cause. Because conservation matters.

            “It’s been one of the most satisfying relationships for me personally and for the wider company, too,” says Lincoln. “Cowiche Canyon embodies what Fremont Brewing is all about and what we try to do.”