2025
Every year around this time, many breweries start to work with a new crop year of selected hops and we get a sneak peak of how these new lots will raise the bar for the upcoming year of lupulin-laced dankness. To us - San Francisco Beer Week is when hop-forward breweries put out their best stuff. While it’s largely about beer in the general sense, it’s also a time when a beer fan can taste some of the most oil-saturated releases of the year.
So naturally, we’ve teamed back up with one of the industry’s leading hop specialists, Ghost Town. The 2025 SFBW release of Cone Goblin and Nose Cone builds off the momentum of last year’s dual release by celebrating our shared philosophy of high impact hop aroma, layered hop flavor and structured bitterness, clean fermentation and a sneaky, dry finish.
Switching it up
Here’s a quick primer on the name and foundation of each release: Our breweries start by swapping two GABF & World Beer Cup winning recipes - Alvarado’s Double Cone, and Ghost Town’s Nose Goblin. Then we each name an x-factor hop(s) that the other brewery has to feature in their version of the collaboration. The result is Alvarado’s Nose Cone, and Ghost Town’s Cone Goblin.
2025 X-FACTOR HOP: HBC 586 (Krush) Cryo & Columbus Cryo
“Keeping a touch Columbus Cryo in the mix for this year’s release was a no-brainer, as it adds a touch of dankness that brings the rest of the hop bill together. As for 586, it’s certainly been the ‘it’ hop the past few years. We liken it to MSG in cooking - add some to the mix to make all your other hops pop.” - J.C. Hill, Alvarado Street Brewery
Watch now
Hear more about the origins of this collab with J.C. Hill, brewmaster & founder of Alvarado Street & Justin Burdt, Director of Brewing Operations at Ghost Town Brewing.
Cone Goblin
West Coast DIPA with Mosaic, Krush, Nelson, Krush Cryo, Simcoe Cryo and Columbus Cryo - 8.9%
Nose Cone
Imperial IPA with Mosaic (Cryo & T90), Nelson, Strata, Columbus Cryo, Riwaka Cryo - 9.2%
