De Yakima a Rupià: llúpols seleccionats a mà i CryoFresh

From Yakima to Rupià: Hand-Selected & CryoFresh Hops

This week, we’re releasing our first beers of the year brewed with hops we selected ourselves in Yakima, Washington, alongside innovative CryoFresh hops from the same region.

To mark the occasion, we hear from DosKiwis Head Brewer Owen, who shares his insights from hand-selecting hops in the Pacific North West, and what this really means for the two beers in question: Lumen Field, a Fresh Hop West Coast IPA, and Rainier Fog, a Fresh Hop Hazy IPA.

With special thanks to our friends at Agronet and Yakima Chief Hops.

(Judit)

As a small brewery, I feel very privileged that we were able to do this. When we first started, we were using whatever hop lots were available. Over time, you get to understand hops more deeply, what characteristics you like, what you don’t, and how small differences shape a beer. Being able to select our hops allows us to build flavour and aroma profiles with intention, which is a really exciting evolution to see.

(Michael)

We’ve come a long way, and the industry has too. Back in 2019, I don’t think CryoFresh even existed. Cryo hops were only just becoming available, and only in certain varieties.

When we started out, we bought all our hops on spot. That basically meant you got what you were given, assuming you could even find the variety you wanted. It’s pretty much the opposite of what we’re doing now, but you have to start somewhere. The only constant really is change (I actually read that on my Yogi tea last night).

Bringing Owen into the team has been a big part of that change. I’ve said that 2025 was the year DosKiwis grew up, and some of that definitely comes from him joining. The direction of the brewery hasn’t changed, but the way we operate has. We’ve added more styles, but nothing outside our wheelhouse.

I’m an instinctive, self-taught brewer, whereas Owen studied brewing at university and has worked in the industry for years, which naturally brings more experience and confidence. There’s more structure in the brewery now, and together with Adria they’ve really improved efficiency. I think our beers are better than ever.

(Owen, Head Brewer)

My own love of beer started in a strange place, at a blackjack table in Las Vegas. I was being brought bottles of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and I remember being blown away by how bitter and flavoursome it was. That moment led me into homebrewing, and eventually I gave up a career in engineering to pursue brewing full time. That path has taken me through breweries at home, in Ireland, Wales, England, Barcelona, and now here in Rupià as Head Brewer at DosKiwis.

Three of our most-used hops are Citra, Mosaic, and Simcoe. When the opportunity came up to select specific lots of those varieties, it was a no-brainer to travel to the Yakima Valley in Washington.

It’s worth clarifying that while all of our regular pelletised hops were hand-selected, the CryoFresh hops themselves weren’t. That said, I was in the Cryo pelletising plant when they were processing the CryoFresh Simcoe we’re using for these beers.

Typically, hops in a brewery are harvested, kilned to remove moisture, and then pelletised. CryoFresh hops are an innovative, unkilned product developed by Yakima Chief Hops (YCH) that allows brewers to make something very close to a wet hop beer year-round.

So it’s very close to brewing with hops that have been freshly harvested in the Pacific North West of the USA and thrown into a brew within hours of being picked. This is made possible by separating some of the stem material from the hops to concentrate the lupulin (the flavoursome stuff), and then freezing them under cryogenic conditions to preserve all of the fresh, green, unkilned hop characteristics. This allows them to impart a complex, raw hop aroma and flavour that’s distinct from typical pelletised hops. I suppose it could be described as bringing an added oily, grassy component to a beer, alongside all of the bright fruity notes we associate with varieties like Citra, Mosaic, and Simcoe.

From a technical perspective, the biggest advantage of CryoFresh hops is how close they bring you to hop harvest, it really can transport you back to the fields. The main challenge is storage: they have to stay frozen until the moment they’re used. Other than that, YCH have made them very easy to work with.

And, for me, the biggest benefit of hop selection is consistency and control. You’re guaranteeing that your inventory for the year is excellent, and you can rule out characteristics you don’t like. For example, a lot of Simcoe in recent years has shown a creamy note that I’m not a fan of. On the selection table, I could immediately remove any lots with that character and focus on what I really want from Simcoe: pine resin, pink grapefruit, rose water, and light peach notes. So expect any of our beers that contain Citra, Simcoe, or Mosaic to be particularly banging this year!

The project itself came together quite simply. Our distributor, Agronet (who contract massive quantities of hops), told us they could access CryoFresh hops and that they’d be available at the same time our selected hops would land, so it felt like a great opportunity to showcase both.

Agronet invited me to Yakima to join them on a wider hop selection trip, with the added bonus of doing a dedicated selection for DosKiwis.

The travelling party included Sergi and Roger of Agronet, as well as Ramon of Soma Beer and Aleix of Kom Beer. It was a great group to spend time with and a brilliant experience for all of us. Big thanks to all of them.

We spent three days together selecting hops and visiting farms, which is always fascinating, as you get to talk directly to growers and hear about the challenges and changes in the industry. The trip also included a few days in Seattle, visiting breweries and even catching a baseball game.

On the selection table, you’re usually comparing four lots of the same variety. These “cores” are already kilned but not pelletised. Once you choose your preferred lot, the hops are pelletised, packaged, and shipped worldwide. Considering selection happened in the last week of September, having the hops in the brewery by Christmas was pretty good going!

With the CryoFresh hops, we had limited quantities of two varieties, Simcoe and Mosaic, so we wanted to showcase them in two beer styles that we enjoy brewing: Hazy IPA and West Coast IPA.

Simcoe is one of the hops that really defines the West Coast IPA style, so it was a bit of a no-brainer to brew an all-Simcoe beer with it. That’s how Lumen Field came about , a modern, lean, dry West Coast IPA with a deep piney nose, plenty of grapefruit, and a hint of peach. What really stands out to me is the flavour. Despite how dry it is, it has a depth of resinous, zesty character that lingers, while still feeling refreshing. It’s one I’ll definitely be keeping in my fridge.

On the other hand, Mosaic is a hop that has had its foot firmly planted in both the hazy and clear IPA worlds, so we thought: why not pair it with its soulmate, our hand-selected Citra, to produce a hazy with the archetypal hop combo? That beer became Rainier Fog. It has all the mango, passion fruit, and citrus you’d expect, but it’s lifted by a grassy hop oil texture that makes it feel different from a standard hazy.

We wanted the names of the beers to reflect the trip to the Pacific North West. Rainier Fog is named after an Alice in Chains song. Being a Seattle band, with Mount Rainier overlooking the city, it felt like a perfect fit for a foggy (hazy) IPA. It also helps that I play Alice in Chains in the brewery pretty regularly.

In keeping with that theme, Lumen Field is the home of the Seattle Seahawks, but it also just felt right for a bright beer.

We’ll be brewing with our hand-selected hops for the entirety of the year. Given the quality of these hops, and the fact that they display exactly what I’m looking for in each variety, it allows me to get very close to the beer I imagine when writing a recipe, which is super exciting. Watch this space!