Garden Path Fermentation - The Wet Hopped Ship

The Wet Hopped Ship pours a hazy golden hue with a dense, cloudlike white head that lingers elegantly, releasing waves of aromatics that immediately define its freshness. On the nose, the first impression is an invigorating burst of freshly cut grass, green hops, lemon verbena, and wildflower honey, wrapped in the soft, rustic character of Garden Path’s native fermentation. As it breathes, layers of white peach, gooseberry, and herbal citrus peel emerge, mingling with faint notes of hay, pepper, and sun-warmed grain.

The palate is lively and complex, balancing the tangy brightness of a saison with the resinous bite of a wet-hopped ale. Fresh hop oils coat the tongue, offering flavors of lime zest, pine needles, and meadow herbs, while the brewery’s mixed-culture fermentation introduces subtle tartness and mineral depth. Mid-palate, a soft malt cushion of cracked grain and sourdough crust steadies the acidity, letting nuances of stone fruit, chamomile, and white pepper come forward. The carbonation is fine and persistent, lifting every flavor and enhancing the beer’s airy texture.

As the beer warms, its terroir-driven nature shines — notes of fermented apple skin, lemongrass, and dry hay evoke the Skagit Valley’s coastal farmlands. The finish is crisp and gently earthy, echoing with citrus pith, wild herbs, and faint funk. This is a beer that celebrates freshness and impermanence — vibrant when young yet layered enough to evolve subtly over time, a rare example of wild fermentation and Pacific Northwest hop character working in seamless harmony.

Enjoy The Wet Hopped Ship fresh to savor its vivid hop aromatics, or cellar briefly for softer, vinous complexity. Pair with grilled salmon, herbed chicken, goat cheese, or roasted root vegetables. For an adventurous match, try it with Thai green curry or lemon-rosemary mussels — dishes that echo its bright acidity and herbal lift.

Garden Path Fermentation up in Skagit Valley, Washington has been crafting some of the most ambitious, successfully executed beers out there, and this month we’ve got a Rare Beer Club Exclusive secured from these folks: Garden Path’s delicious blended hoppy amber ale, The Whole Sum Parts. G arden Path’s beers are bottle conditioned and yeast driven while focused on showcasing the region’s wealth of locally grown ingredients—even making cider, wine, perry and mead from Skagit Valley ingredients. They use 100% native yeast, but specifically cultivated their house culture to focus on native Saccharomyces (the genus that includes most traditional brewer’s yeasts) rather than a pungent or acidic strain. They focus on making balanced, nuanced, drinkable products—uniquely produced in the Skagit Valley.

Founders Ron Extract and Amber Watts may be familiar names to some of you, as both are coming from positions at Jester King Brewery in Austin, Texas. The pair wanted to realize a brewery with their own unique vision at the core, and Skagit Valley has proven to be optimal for them realizing the kind of hyperlocal, native-yeast-driven brewery they wanted to build. Garden Path’s house culture was largely developed with their original lead fermentationist Jason Hansen, who’d come to Garden Path from the illustrious Sante Adairius Rustic Ales in Capitola, California. (He’s since transitioned to a less-rural gig and to Garden Path’s advisory board.) What Skagit Valley lacks in proximity it makes up for in many other things, though. The cooler temperatures and lack of summer heat, for instance—highs generally stay below 80—make for great fermentation conditions for a brewery focused on native yeast.

Everything that Garden Path does is typically blended to taste, with batches often separated into different fermentation vessels before being re-blended afterwards. Their emphasis on a native house culture and using open fermentation and oak foeders benefits from the lack of high temperature swings. It also reduces their need for artificial temperature controls. Every edition of a beer is approached as a recreation of a theme rather than a fixed replication, so these beer lines will further develop and evolve as additional editions are brewed. Ultimately, Garden Path Fermentation’s looking to take people in directions they don’t expect to go.