493: Podcast 493: Fresher Than Fresh! Jake Watt of Trap Door Utilizes Hot- and Cold-Side Techniques in Award-Winning Wet-Hopped IPAs

In both 2024 and 2025, Jake Watt, head brewer at Trap Door in Washougal, Washington, took home gold medals in the GABF fresh hop category for his beer, Fresher Than Fresh. Interestingly, the recipes for each of those beers was quite different—and the recipe for the 2026 edition that he’ll submit this year will see more changes as well. Fresh-hopped beers are a moving target, ephemeral in nature, and making the best possible beers today means using all the things—unkilned cones harvested that morning, Cryo Fresh pellets, flowable hop products, and even a touch of Riwaka here and there.

In this episode, Watt shares insights into the iterative changes and evolving ingredients in Trap Door’s medal-winning fresh-hopped beer. Along the way, he touches on:

unlocking the best Mosaic character with Krush and Riwaka

using deep-cut Cascade with additional thiol character

flavor stability in fresh-hopped beers when hot-side hopping

taking advantage of fresh-hop season to gain access to specific lots from certain growers

focusing on Oregon-grown hops for fresh-hopped beers due to earlier pick windows

mechanically chopping fresh cones

controlling dilution and pH rise in fresh-hopped beers

layering in character with fresh-frozen hop pellets

sneaking smaller amounts of Cryo Fresh into beers not labeled as fresh hops

And more.