This fresh hop definition is a made up distinction that SNBC invented. I love Celebration and the story is cool for Sierra's marketing, but Fresh Hop Beer is always and forever the correct, most sensible way to describe what you are calling "wet hopped". Think about it - your definition of Fresh Hop includes "freshness" but subjectively applied to post-kiln whole cone hops used sometime soon after kilning, packaging, and shipping. This isn't a category of technique for hopping a beer, it's a description of how every SNBC beer is hopped with the vague distinciton that it's "right after harvest"! Using this rationale, are all of their remaining beers "old hop" or "stale hop"? Of course not! Those hops are in zero(ish) oxygen packaging in cold storage (probably subzero). Don't let Sierra Nevada get away with this fresh-washing of their star seasonal!
My only thing to note on the Sierra Nevada story is that back in what, 1981 when Celebration was first brewed, my understanding is that 'fresh' was used in the industry to describe recently dried hops and that, overtime, the definition of fresh has shifted to unkilned. Do with that what you will!
This fresh hop definition is a made up distinction that SNBC invented. I love Celebration and the story is cool for Sierra's marketing, but Fresh Hop Beer is always and forever the correct, most sensible way to describe what you are calling "wet hopped". Think about it - your definition of Fresh Hop includes "freshness" but subjectively applied to post-kiln whole cone hops used sometime soon after kilning, packaging, and shipping. This isn't a category of technique for hopping a beer, it's a description of how every SNBC beer is hopped with the vague distinciton that it's "right after harvest"! Using this rationale, are all of their remaining beers "old hop" or "stale hop"? Of course not! Those hops are in zero(ish) oxygen packaging in cold storage (probably subzero). Don't let Sierra Nevada get away with this fresh-washing of their star seasonal!
My only thing to note on the Sierra Nevada story is that back in what, 1981 when Celebration was first brewed, my understanding is that 'fresh' was used in the industry to describe recently dried hops and that, overtime, the definition of fresh has shifted to unkilned. Do with that what you will!