Hopped Up: Brewing Beer with Fresh Hops from Kansas

Late August was harvest time for Ryan Triggs and his family at Kansas Hop Co. in Ottawa, Kansas. Triggs and his family started the company in 2015 with the mission of providing quality local hops to brewers all over the Kansas City area.

Typically, hops are dried down into pellets for use throughout the year. But fresh hops provide a lot more aroma and a different flavor.

Until recent years, Kansas and Missouri did not have a local fresh hop option for most breweries. Kansas Hop Co. can deliver fresh hops within an hour of being harvested for brewers to put straight in the mash tun, for a super fresh beer.

Alma Mader Brewing is one of the 14 local breweries using fresh hops this year from Kansas Hop Co. (All told, Kansas Hop Co. supplies about 30 area breweries with dry and fresh hops.) Nick Mader, owner and head brewer of Alma Mader, shows us the rest of the process from vine to glass in the attached video.

If they are not already sold out yet, here are the breweries that brewed a fresh hop beer this year with Kansas Hop Co. hops:

• Alma Mader Brewing – Kansas City, MO
• BKS Artisan Ales – Kansas City, MO
• Transparent Brewing Co. – Grandview, MO
• The Goat Brewing Co. – Lee’s Summit, MO
• East Forty Brewing – Blue Springs, MO
• Wind Shift Brewing – Blue Springs, MO
• Pathlight Brewing – Shawnee, KS
• Servaes Brewing Co. – Shawnee, KS
• Rockcreek Brewing Co. – Mission, KS
• Lost Evenings Brewing Co. – Lenexa, KS
• Fields & Ivy Brewery – Lawrence, KS
• Not Lost Brewing Co. – Ottawa, KS
• Blind Tiger Brewery – Topeka, KS
• Happy Basset Brewing Co. – Topeka, KS