The idol reborn in the harvest. Wet hops pulled from the bine at dawn, rushed to the kettle before the dew could dry. Red berries, lemon, honey, and grass. Raw and alive.
Cernunnos, the horned god of Celtic tradition, is a figure of cycles. He is born at the winter solstice, grows through spring into the fullness of summer, and reaches his apex of power in autumn, when the forests blaze with color and the land yields its final abundance before the descent into darkness. He is the stag king at the height of the rut, antlers fully grown, commanding the wild places with the authority of something that knows its time is almost over.
In Celtic and later neo-pagan tradition, the autumn harvest is the moment of sacred exchange. The land gives everything it has. The grain is cut. The fruit is pulled. The hops are stripped from the bine. This is not gentle gathering. It is an act of beautiful violence, the severing of living things at the peak of their vitality so that others may be sustained through the dark months ahead. Cernunnos presides over this transaction. He is the god who understands that abundance and sacrifice are the same gesture.
In Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the hop harvest arrives in late August and September. The bines are cut at dawn, when moisture still clings to the cones and the lupulin glands are swollen with essential oils. Fresh hops must be brewed within hours of harvest. They cannot be dried or stored. They are alive, and they must be used before that life fades.
Fresh Hop Green Idol captures that fleeting moment. A Fresh Hop West Coast Pilsner at 5.8% ABV, it carries red berries, lemon, honey, and fresh-cut grass straight from the bine to the kettle. Raw and electric with a vitality that cannot be replicated or preserved. This is the offering pulled from the vine at the hour of greatest power, brewed before the horned god falls into winter. OBA Silver medal, 2025.
