Fresh Hop season starts in style
Thief Brewing — we visit Canterbury's newest brewery. Top 50 Gastropubs revealed; is your favourite there? Six-pack sales decline in US as singles and 12-packs gain ground. Stouts on the up-and-up.
Welcome to Friday Night Beers!
Well, fresh hop season is in full swing and I’ve got a few reviews for you this week, but I also need to keep some up my sleeve for future newsletters! But so far, I’m impressed.
Mostly we’ve seen Motueka- and Riwaka-hopped beers available as they are the early-harvest hops and are better suited IMHO to pilsners and pale ales. Soon we’ll be getting more full-noise beers featuring (mostly) Nelson Sauvin and Nectaron.
Given the time of year we’re in, I want to give a shout-out to the ultimate fresh hop festival, Hopstock, is now a month-long event for all of April.
The festival was previously a 5-day event but after feedback from punters, venues and brewers, Craft Beer Capital, who organise the event have extended Hopstock 2024 to include the whole month of April, so there’s plenty of time to sample all the beers and for visitors to get to Wellington for a slice of the action.
Last year Hopstock expanded to feature more than 20 beers, and punters’ feedback was that it was difficult to taste all of them, or even the 15 required to go into the draw for prizes in a short window.
While venues enjoyed the rush from a 5-day festival, there was often too much competition for attendance and therefore bars couldn’t do any special events.
And brewers had to wait to release kegs of fresh hop beer until the specific week of Hopstock whereas now they can be consumed as fresh as possible.
And with different hop varieties harvested at different times, organisers expect to see “cohorts of beers hopped with the same fresh hops becoming available around the same time. This is a nice reflection of the fresh hop harvest”.
The Hopstock website will be updated daily so people know where the freshest of fresh hopped beers are pouring and just looking at the list makes me want to book a ticket to Wellington ASAP!
Hopstock 2024 Lineup — Craftbeercapital.com
There’s also a Fresh Hop event in Auckland tomorrow, with a range of beers pouring at The Lumsden, Fridge & Flagon and Galbraith’s.
The Lumsden Freehouse — North End, Bootleg, Sunshine, Laughing Bones and Abandoned Brewery.
Galbraith's Alehouse — Urbanaut, Sawmill, Emporium, Behemoth, and Duncan’s.
Fridge & Flagon — Brave Brewing, Choice Bros, Pacific Coast, Wilderness, Hallertau, and Black Sands.
There’s a great day out beckoning …
Top 50 gastropubs revealed
Do you have a favourite pub? Or more precisely “gastropub”? I was intrigued to scroll through the list of the top 50 gastropubs as part of a competition run by Hospitality NZ. The top-50 list was based on public votes and judging is now underway to determine the winner, which will be announced next week, on April 10.
Top 50 List — Top 50 NZ Gastropubs
Beer of the Week No 1
With daylight savings ending this weekend, it feels like the right moment to bring an imperial stout into the mix.
For many years, Baylands Van Da Tsar Russian Imperial Stout topped the “people’s choice” voting at the annual Beervana festival in Wellington. It’s a huge beer, 10% ABV and is aged on vanilla pods and bourbon to create a rich, sweet, heart-warming beer. As a result of the Beervana success, Van Da Tsar developed a loyal following and it remains New Zealand’s highest-rated Russian Imperial Stout on the Untappd ratings app.
And now, Baylands, based in Petone, Wellington, are riffing off the popularity of the original Van Da Tsar to produce variations on a theme and the latest release is a Boysenberry & Maple version.
The aroma on this is worth the “admission” price to open the can: huge maple syrup and lush boysenberries rush out of the glass and if your eyes were closed, you’d swear it was time for dessert. The flavour follows through with waves of chocolate, vanilla, bourbon, more maple syrup and a berry tartness to cut through the richness.
This is an experience to be shared and savoured.
You can find this at select New World stores, your home for great craft beer and much-appreciated supporters of Friday Night Beers.
Six-pack sales decline in US, singles up
Some intriguing data was released by the US Brewers Association this week, showing beer sales moving in two directions at once with punters picking up more 12-packs of beer, and more single cans. Both at the expense of the six-pack.
Nielson data cited in the analysis shows 12-pack can sales surpassed six-pack can sales both in terms of dollars and total volume of beer sales as the top beer format. In the craft beer arena, the six-pack remained the top-selling beer format but its popularity is waning: six-pack craft beer sales were down more than 12% for the year.
So how are people buying their craft beer instead?
In craft, 12-packs increased in popularity along with singles, which were the biggest winners of the year, increasing by 2.2%. Surprisingly, singles actually surpassed four-packs in popularity over the past year.
Bart Watson, chief economist for the Brewers Association and author of the recap, predicts that we will continue to see the popularity of four-packs and six-packs drop. “In the same way we’ve seen consumers focus in on alcohol by volume (ABV) and specific occasions, hollowing out the middle of the ABV range a bit, I wonder if they are starting to do something similar with pack sizes,” he wrote in the analysis. “Six-packs are still the plurality of craft packaging, but they are now down to 43% share of volume. It’s likely that singles and 12-packs will pass them in 2024.”
In some ways, I get this: if you really like something and want a fridge filler then a 12-pack offers better value and perhaps greater certainty, leaving room to explore at the edges with the more thought-provoking singles.
Thief Brewing steal the show
Thief Brewing, based in the Canterbury town of Tai Tapu, have been making a bit of noise lately, so we set off on a journey — and it was some journey — to find out more about them.
Thief Brewing Steal the Show | Pursuit of Hoppiness
Dusty’s Beer of the Week
Beautiful drop this! Quirky Nana is a 6.2% banana choc stout from Derelict. Notes of banana lollies, chocolate, vanilla on a velvety smooth mouthfeel with a rich drying finish, a pleasure to drink.
Stouts perform … stoutly
Given we’ve featured two pastry stouts in this week’s newsletter it feels like the following piece of information holds true: stouts are having a revival.
The Guardian reported that renewed interest in Guinness, thanks to great advertising campaigns and the launch of Guinness 0.0, has helped fuel the growth.
Waitrose said stout sales had increased by 29% compared with the same time last year. It also noted a higher split of women buying the beer: 61.3% of the volume was bought by women and 37.5% by men.
Tesco said stout had become so popular it was now the fastest-growing beer variety in the UK, with sales rising by 35% over the past year. New ranges are launching all the time. Brewdog’s stout, Black Heart, which was brought on to the market in January 2023, is now Tesco’s most popular after Guinness.
The fact that stouts can pack in a lot of flavour on relatively lower ABVs is also a factor in the growth.
Michael Brown, global whisky brand ambassador for Ian Macleod Distillers, said: “It’s a blend of younger generations embracing nostalgia combined with its exceptional flavour.
“Lower ABV also contributes to its popularity, reminiscent of the recent trend of the uptick of session IPAs.”
Beer of the Week No 2
This is an absolutely stunning beer from Paraparaumu-based Duncan’s thanks to a new hop that promises to be something special.
“Eggers Special” is the name of the hop variety created on the Eggers hop farm in Nelson.
Unique to this long-standing farm, it’s an amazing hop that delivers both tropical fruit flavours and aromas you’d associate with modern New Zealand hops, as well as deeper earthy, herbal characteristics typically found in British or European hops.
It’s quite an exceptional drinking experience, with the fresh hops adding a prickliness to the palate that adds texture and complexity to beer. It’s beautifully balanced and finishes crisp and dry.
A must-try in my book, and there’s an NZIPA made with the same hop coming out any day.
Victoria’s oldest craft brewery in voluntary administration
The oldest craft brewery in the Aussie state of Victoria, Grand Ridge, has gone into voluntary administration.
Eric Walters — one of the original co-founders who took sole ownership of the business in 1997 — now hopes to sell the business after it became the eighth independent brewery in Australia to enter voluntary administration in the first quarter of 2024, according to The Crafty Pint.
The Crafty Pint has been told: "The decision to appoint administrators was taken as a result of financial pressures dating from the pandemic, along with rapidly rising costs and increasing taxes. It has become imperative to restructure the business via voluntary administration.
Grand Ridge is a regional brewery based in South Gippsland, in the eastern-most part of Victoria.
The brewery’s location and age brought to mind Sunshine Brewing, also started in 1989 and located in the eastern-most part of this country. Victoria is not dissimilar in population to New Zealand, they have 6.7 million people to our 5.1) but in 2022, according to Brews News, had 158 breweries compared with over 200 here.
I don’t know what that all means, except that things are way, way tougher across the Tasman than they are here.
Tim’s Beer of the Week
Hoppiness chief reviewer Tim Newman begins his fresh hop assessment:
Fresh hop season is upon us, and with it, Fresh Hop Watch 2024 begins… Feedback from Nelson indicates an exceptional growing season, so I’m expecting big things from this year's releases. While the best fresh hop beers tend to appear toward the end of the season, the first wave of (mostly hazies) are already showing promise. Brothers Gamma Daydream is a full-strength (6.3%) hazy IPA that harnesses the all-time classic Motueka hop (sourced from Waimea) for its fresh component.
That unmistakable fresh hop aroma of pure green is delightfully evident from the first crack of the can. Citrus zest, makrut lime leaf, fresh ginger and even a hint of lemongrass all jostle their way past the olfactories, while the palate reveals a smooth and juicy malt base restrained by a well-balanced bitterness.
Fresh, juicy, and like all good fresh hop beers, impossibly alive with the unique and fleeting flavours of the harvest season.
Is non-alcoholic beer really not a big thing?
I know I write a fair bit about non-alcoholic beer — and I do believe it’s the one segment that is driving interest in beer right now.
But I was interested in the following take from Jeff Alworth at Beervana Blog, who presents data to show that all the noise about non-alc is out of proportion.
I will note that this is America-only data, and possibly not reflective of what’s happening here (and elsewhere) as all the evidence coming my way is that it is a strongly growing segment, admittedly off a low base.
I HAVE A MINOR COMPLAINT: N/A Beer Still Not a Deal — Beervana (beervanablog.com)
Beer of the Week No 3
Staying on the fresh hop theme, I’ve seen a bit of chatter about the following beer on social media, with some folks saying they were a bit underwhelmed.
I reckon you’re hard to impress if you don’t like this, but each to their own: I reckon it’s magic. And the clarity … to die for!
What I like about is the textural element, something often under-valued at fresh hop time.
Outbreak 24 is brewed with fresh Motueka and Taiheke hops which means intense sweet lime and lemon.
Beautifully clear, there’s sweet citrus and a light herbal note on the nose. Lemon zest and green jellybeans follow before a slightly bitter finish. It’s got a great hop oil depth and lovely resinous texture.
Sure, it won’t wallop your nasal passage with a sack of dankness, but I don’t think it’s intended to do that. It’s just a well-made, multi-layered beer.
Outbreak 24 is also the first in a series of beers, each designed to get more intense. They are labelled 1, 2, & 3, and created to be drunk in order, and each can will glow in the dark.
It’s a clever, connected series that’s sure to have fans coming back for more and more.
The next two instalments are out now: The Undead, which is a hazy IPA and The Hop Hunter, which is a clear NZIPA.
As Double Vision co-founder Warren Drahota explains, the series is designed as unfolding story:
“We wanted to do something like a Night of the Living Dead character. As we have found out from other breweries’ dramas, we don’t use the ‘Z’ word as somehow that has a trademark attached to it.
“We then landed on The Undead. What would the start of the story be, then? Well, we suppose an outbreak of fresh hops was going to be the event to trigger the story. That's how we got to Outbreak 24.”
The Undead is the “curse” of the hazy — and like every good horror they needed a hero to step in, so Hop Hunter saves the day.
With Double Vision having a preference for bright, clean beers, the last one is the “cure” … a bright beer to banish the haze so drinkers “can see clearly again”.
Huski’s sustained growth
I’ve never been one for a stubby holder, being the type of beer geek who 99.5% of the time pours his beer into a glass — the exception tends to be Steinlager Classic from a bottle. And Panhead Port Road Pils, for that matter … it seems to work well straight from the bottle too.
But I digress. If you are a person who likes their cans or bottles to be as chilled as possible, you’ve possibly heard of Huski, after all, if Oprah has heard of them… so who hasn’t!
That sort of publicity will really help a business and it seems Huski are on a nice growth curve.
That’s it for this week. And we’ll be back with more fresh hop reviews next week as the production ramps up.
