People wait all year for the kind of beer available Saturday at the Fresh Hop Ale Festival.

You can't find it in stores or in bars. It's only available for a short period after the hop harvest each year, and it loses its luster the longer it sits around.

So this is it, beer lovers. This is your big day.

"If you're a beer fan, you should definitely go," said Jeff Winn, president and brewmaster for Yakima Craft Brewing. "You'll never find beers like this anywhere else."

The fresh-hop ales served at the festival are made with "wet" hops, or hops that aren't kiln-dried after harvest.

"In doing so, you get that true aroma and flavor of the hops that you would get in the field," said Karl Vanevenhoven, co-chairman of this year's festival and director of operations for hop company Yakima Chief.

In other words, the wet hops give the beer an herbal flavor, not unlike the scent that permeates the Valley during the annual hop harvest.

So, if you like that smell, you'll like this beer.

"It really isn't much more hoppy," Winn said. "What (using wet hops) does add is a taste that's kind of hard to quantify. Some people describe it as vegetal."

Sixteen brewers will pour beer this year, alongside three wineries and a hard-cider maker. Organizers expect about 2,500 people to attend, which would be in line with the attendance of previous years, Vanevenhoven said.

Last year, that attendance translated into a record $60,000 for Allied Arts of Yakima, which hosts the festival each year. Fresh Hop has become the organization's main annual fundraiser, using a simple formula, Allied Arts Director Jessica Moskwa said.

"It's kind of cool to be able to dance in the street and taste beer and run into all of your friends," she said.

Plus, it celebrates the Yakima Valley's agricultural heritage and its historical role -- via Bert Grant's creation of the country's first brewpub -- in the brewing industry.

"It's unique and authentic," Moskwa said. "This isn't happening anywhere else, and it's totally a part of our community."

Winn agreed, saying that for an area that grows three-quarters of the nation's hops and has played an integral role in the microbrew revolution, Yakima is not the craft beer town that it should be.

"So for us, for Yakima, this is our big show," he said. "There are literally beers that you cannot have anywhere else in the world."

Beer aficionados outside of Yakima are starting to catch on, too, Moskwa said. More and more advanced tickets are being sold online to people from out of state, and this year SeaPort Airlines of Portland made special arrangements for a direct, round-trip flight to Yakima just for the festival.

"That really validates our goal of making this a regional festival," Moskwa said.

In addition to the beer, there will be food vendors, and live music from The Shreds and the Blue Tropics.

"It's almost like a block party," Vanevenhoven said.

* Pat Muir can be reached at 509-577-7693 or pmuir@yakimaherald.com.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Fresh Hop Ale Festival.

WHEN: 6-11 p.m. Saturday.

WHERE: South Third Street next to the Capitol Theatre and Millennium Plaza.

HOW MUCH: $30 in advance, $35 at the gate.

MORE INFO: www.freshhopalefestival.com.

PARTICIPATING BREWERS: Yakima Craft Brewing; Georgetown Brewing; Sierra Nevada; Rogue; Ice Harbor Brewing Co.; Snipes Mountain Brewery; Full Sail Brewing Co.; Deschutes Brewery; Laughing Dog Brewery; Walla Walla Brewers; Beer Valley Brewing Co.; Pyramid Breweries; The Pike Brewing Co.; Snoqualmie Falls Brewing Co.; Iron Horse Brewery; Rattlesnake Mountain Brewing Co.