Fresh hops, Ted Lasso & Three Sisters

Plus: Are cans bad for beer? Weekend recommendations from Behemoth, McLeod's and Bach; an insight into Aussie beer market.

The fresh hop beers are rolling out of breweries around the country and I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a few. This year there’s more than ever to choose from thanks to increased availability via NZ Hops Ltd and the independent farms. Fresh Hop season is really becoming a thing in New Zealand, which is great. You basically have to be living here to get your hands on these beers so they’re quite special, ephemeral and worth exploring.

We’ve got a couple of fresh hop beer stories this week along with heaps of other news and beer recommendations for your weekend.

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Wall of Flavour

I was intrigued when I saw an Instagram post from Brave Brewing about their first fresh hop beer. I’ve long been a fan of Matt Smith’s beer and was surprised to learn he hadn’t previously done a fresh hop beer with commercial hops. Part of it was the difficulty of getting hops to the relatively remote Hastings brewery and the other fact, as Matt explained it, was that he’s usually flat out at this time of year so never had time. Despite coming down with Covid-19 himself, Matt said the slow down in hospo during the Omicron outbreak allowed him the chance to make a fresh hop beer. To find out more, including what it’s like to travel in a car loaded with Nectaron hops, check out the story below:

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First beers brewed with Wanaka-grown hops

Staying with fresh hops … b.effect brewery in Wānaka last week released two fresh hop beers brewed with locally-grown hops as part of a trial to see if the region is suitable for ongoing production.

A team of about 30 volunteers spent a day harvesting the first hop trial in Maungawera Valley. The hops went straight into the kettle the following day for b.effect’s first fresh hop beers made with locally-grown hops.

Brewery founder James Hay had never thought about growing hops in the area until Jake Ruddenklau told him about a hop trial that Hop Revolution had planted on a 1000sqm plot on his family farm in the Maungawera Valley.

The brewery’s first annual Hoppin’ Harvest yielded about 120kg of fresh hops. About half of those were Motueka. The 120kg, harvested by hand, were used in b.effect’s fresh hop beers: Hoppin’ Harvest, a 6.2 per cent IPA, and Living Off the Land, a 5.4 per cent pale ale.

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No can do

Also up on the site this week was an opinion piece from Karl Hayes of the Brewtopia home brew shop in Wellington. Karl used to be a brewer and has been in the game for a long time. His observation about beer quality in cans is bound to cause some debate, but it’s a good discussion point as we see more and more breweries move to canning.

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Beer of the week No 1

This is a case of “if you see it, buy it” says Pursuit of Hoppiness reviewer Tim Newman, who had something of a religious experience with Behemoth’s new triple IPA Screw it, Let’s Brew it.

Tim writes: “This extremely-limited American-hopped triple IPA (11 per cent ABV) from Behemoth suggests a certain attitude when it comes to the brewing of such IPAs. I share a similar, somewhat adjacent philosophy, only mine is more ‘screw it let’s drink it’. The nose presents an impermeable wall of ripe fruit aroma, massive tinned pineapple and grapefruit with a background of pine and sticky fruit syrup. The flavour, for all its massive strength and vast concentration of hops, actually shows a remarkable restraint. Sharp fresh fruit blends precisely with the rich malt, and before anything can get too sweet, a slow but absolutely unstoppable bitterness gradually eclipses the palate. Without a doubt one of the longest and most profoundly bitter finishes on an IPA that I’ve tasted in a very long time. A religious IPA experience.”

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Best writing of the week

British beer writer Pete Brown is one of the best in the business and his intimate knowledge and affection for British pubs is unrivalled. So when he writes about the Apple TV show Ted Lasso in the context of the local pub used featured in the series, it’s bound to be a great read.