Tap Handle #36: Green Valley Brewing - Wild Hop Lager

This is a pretty tap featuring a bundle of hops and the nice Wild Hop label. The detail is great...it's a nice addition to the collection.

Click through to read more about Green Valley Brewery and their Wild Hop Lager...


Wild Hop Lager was brewed for Anheuser-Busch by Green Valley Brewing in Fairfield, CA. Created in 2007, this beer was steeped in controversy from the start. First was the fact that though Anheuser-Busch owned the brewery, by putting Green Valley's name on the beer instead of their own, people claimed Anheuser-Busch misrepresented its beer as a craft beer. Anheuser-Busch also had Green Valley make a push into Whole Food Markets, since beer sold there is often at a premium because it must be organic, and A-B was seeing dollar signs. This is where the second point of controversy occurs. Wild Hop was certified organic, even though chemical fertilizers and pesticides were used on it. This is because in 2006, when Congress passed the agricultural appropriations bill,  they included a rider allowing 38 synthetic ingredients to be used in organic food, at the behest of lobbyists from big companies like A-B. It was all for naught, however, as poor reviews and ratings doomed the beer, which has since been retired. Weighted average on ratebeer.com is 2.31 out of 5.