Hop harvest set to be a great one
Long, dry summer promises "one out of the box" for hop harvest. It's farewell to Hashi — goodbye good friend. Marchfest ticket giveaway. Lion celebrate 100 years. Chilean Star Wars beer ads go viral
Welcome to Friday Night Beers hop heads!
On that note, it looks like the hop harvest currently underway in the Tasman region is going to be one of the best in the past decade at least.
I spoke recently to Andrew Sutherland, who manages Oast House hop farm in Moutere, one of three hop farms owned by the New Zealand Super Fund (which I figure means we Kiwis all have a stake in it!).
Andrew reckons it’s one of the driest, sunniest summers he’s seen in the Moutere region and that means good news for lovers of fresh hops.
“I’ve been managing this farm for about 10 years and according to my rainfall records it’s the least amount of rain we’ve had on the farm from September.
“There are creeks around us that, even in a dry year, have some residual flow them and they’re totally dry, so that says something.”
Hops love hot, dry weather with lots of UV light and will thrive “as long as we get enough water into them”.
That’s what’s happening this year.
“It looks like a pretty fertile year,” Sutherland said. “It’s a good-looking crop. We had a very good burr, good flowering, and a high rate of that burr turning to cones.
“As we’re plucking hops off and rubbing them the aromas are developing really well. We’re particularly watching Motueka and Riwaka and they look stunning.
“I think the aromatic quality this year could be one out of the box. There should be a nice concentration and good ripeness of flavour — to steal a term from the wine industry, it should be a good vintage.”
This will be welcome news to lovers of fresh hop beers, as last year’s hop crop suffered from the huge amount of rain that descended on the region at the start of spring.
It’s a similar story from Brent McGlashan at Mac Hops.
“We have had a lovely hot summer here at the top of the South Island of New Zealand, plenty of sunshine hours and not too many damaging winds. Rain has been very limited this season with all farms running full irrigation schedules for most of summer,” he wrote on Instagram.
Stay tuned over following weeks for more fresh hop stories!
Farewell to Hashigo Zake
It’s going to be a huge night in Wellington with last drinks being called at Hashigo Zake.
I wrote about the reasons why they are closing last week and this week I wanted to share a more personal reflection from writer Hadyn Green and some pics from Jed Soane.
I particularly like this one of the Parrotdog team at Hashi this time 12 years ago when they launched their cult/iconic Bitter Bitch:
Goodbye Hashi — Farewell To A Friend | Pursuit of Hoppiness
If you’re planning to go down there tonight, there is a cover charge for the music, so pre-warned is pre-armed with a $20 note. As proprietor Dominic Kelly noted in his weekly email:
“Having promised to go out with a bang on Friday, we asked Oscar Lavën, one of the many great musicians that have played here over the years, to bring whatever kind of musical ensemble he sees fit to, and provide some musical entertainment for the evening. We left the details to him, but he’s named a lineup of himself (playing whichever wind instrument he feels like), Robert Henderson (bass), Louis Thompson-Munn (piano) and Jacob Randall (drums), and he’s proposed a musical direction that visitors from New Orleans might recognise. Precise set times are in Oscar’s hands as well.
“Whatever happens musically will be very, very special.
“For that reason and because we want to send our staff off in a way that rewards them, at least a little, for years of toil in a poorly paid profession, there will be a non-negotiable, cash-only cover charge of $20. We’ll be applying it from 4pm on Friday.
“If anyone feels that it’s unfair of us to suddenly apply a cover charge like this, well, such a person has had fourteen and a half years to come here admission-free, often with world-class entertainment thrown in.”
Beer of the Week No 1
Urbanaut Brewing are up to No 7 in a series entitled First Press: fruit-driven hazy IPAs. This one is Passionfruit & Lime and those two flavours sing to me in a big way so I was quick off the mark to try this. Passionfruit and some zesty citrus jump out. The texture is creamy and lush thanks to wheat and oats. The hop bill is Riwaka and Citra Cryo. As someone that needs to be led by the nose to a hazy, this is one I’d go back for. It had an X-Factor that brought a genuine smile to my face. The fruit addition — passionfruit puree and freeze-dried lime powder in the whirlpool and a dash of lime juice concentrate and passionfruit juice concentrate to the bright tanks — lowers the pH fractionally so that it pushes close to being a sour IPA, but it’s not sour … and saying tart IPA didn’t feel like the right word either. Whatever you want to call it, it’s bright and creamy all at once.
Available in select New World stores, your home of craft beer.
Marchfest ticket giveaway
With Easter falling a little earlier than usual this year, Marchfest is in fact Aprilfest in 2024.
The event, held at Founders Park in Nelson, is also uniquely an all-South Island event for the first time.
There are 15 breweries and each will have a unique offering, which means Marchfest is an event where everything is new.
We have two double passes to give away, worth $90 each. So if you’re in Nelson, or are heading that way for April 6, and you want to go, email me at: michael@hoppiness.co.nz to enter the draw. Winners will be notified by email.
The breweries on show include all of Nelson’s finest: Hop Federation, Townshend, Golden Bear, Sprig & Fern, Eddyline, Mussel Inn, Flavourtorium (The Free House), McCashin’s, and newcomer Acoustic Brewing, who are bringing a Marzen-style lager. DNA is coming across from Blenheim, while Shortjaw will be up from Westport. ChinChiller, Two Thumb, Test Lab and Brew Moon will represent Canterbury.
After a sneak peek at the beer list, it’s fair to say DNA’s White IPA will be a drawcard. Brewer Dave Nicholls created a fantastic White IPA, Southern Alps, when he was at Moa and his DNA version sounds fantastic: malted wheat, coriander seed, a Belgian Witbier yeast, and a payload of hops — Citra, Comet, Hallertau Blanc and Nelson Sauvin. See also: ChinChiller’s Belgian-style hazy pale ale.
Shortjaw’s all-South Island fruited sour, with West Coast-grown blueberries and tayberries will be another must-have. The music is headline by Lyttleton’s The Eastern, one of the best alt-country bands in Aotearoa.
And back for 2024 is the popular Beer + Food Matched Lunch where you can be the first to try the Marchfest beers matched with local food as part of a five-course lunch.
Catered by Gourmet Catering Nelson the event is presented by beer guru and qualified Cicerone, Denise Garland. Lunch starts at 11am and finishes around 1.30pm, then you can head out and enjoy the festival.
Lion celebrate their century
Lion NZ are celebrating 100 years in business.
Admittedly, Lion are a little slow out of the blocks for their centenary celebrations, as the formation of New Zealand Breweries (Lion’s precursor) happened in 1923, but they've been making up for it with in-house events around the country through the start of the year.
They've even brewed a special Lion Pale Ale, produced by the team at Emerson's, which is not publicly available but might be found if you're in the right place at the right time, or know the right people!
Anyway, the good people at Lion asked me to come in and give a presentation to their crew about the history of Lion, which I wrote about extensively in Beer Nation — The Art & Heart of Kiwi Beer. And since I was preparing it for a talk, I figured I’d turn it into a story …
Lion Celebrates a Century | Pursuit of Hoppiness
Reading Between The Lines …
Last week I reviewed Hop Federation’s Between the Lines Cold IPA, and this week it crossed the desk of Pursuit of Hoppiness chief reviewer, Tim Newman.
Tim doesn’t waste his tastebuds — or his notes — on anything less than superb, so while I’m reluctant to mention the same beer two weeks running, there’s something about this one — either the NZH-101 hop or the brewing style (or both!) that’s threaded a needle of precision:
Ever since Cold IPA hit the scene it’s produced some of my favourite recent beers. Crisp, clean and superbly effective at delivering their hop payload. I’ve also been somewhat (and somewhat cynically) afraid that the style will fade away into obscurity just as it's getting started.
Thankfully that hasn’t happened, and furthermore, the quality of new releases is still firmly on the rise, as this new limited release from Hop Federation, Between The Lines (5.8% ABV), aptly demonstrates.
The gentle aroma takes on a remarkably floral guise, with rose and violet mingling with white grape and gooseberry. The palate is crisp and smooth for sure, but to describe it so simply would be underselling exactly what this IPA achieves. There’s a pristine delicacy to it that is quite unlike anything else out there right now. The dawn of the anti-hazy is upon us…
8 Wired make case for excise relief
Soren Eriksen from 8 Wired Brewing, featured in a recent edition of Business North, published by Waterford Press.
In that story, he made a plea for the government to rethink excise tax relief to protect an important boutique industry:
“Times are definitely tough for everyone, ourselves included. The main reasons behind this are massive increases in costs of goods, excise tax and freight. Unless the government shows any interest in maintaining a boutique industry that is good for jobs and tourism, unfortunately, there will probably be more breweries to face trouble.”
Soren said in other Western countries, including Australia, small producers received an excise tax relief to help level the playing field with the large international corporations that control 90% of the market. “Unfortunately, neither the previous nor the incoming government seem to have any interest in following the rest of the world.”
You can read the full story here:
Beer of the week No 2
Speaking of boutique, I trekked down to Tamahere, south of Hamilton (near Mystery Creek), the other day to meet up with friends who were playing golf at Tieke (a beautiful, fun, and very cool-looking course).
The question after a beer on the deck at the clubhouse was whether to visit Bootleg or Hopnotic, the two breweries in the area. Hopnotic won the coin toss as it was slightly closer to where we were staying for the night.
On top of great pizzas in their “Woolshed” bar, I thoroughly enjoyed the beers. The Munich Fog was not as cloudy as many hefeweizens, but it had a punchy clove and subtle banana hit and I enjoyed it. The Galaxy IPA (pictured) was well-balanced and a bit of a throwback to maltier IPAs, but made for good drinking too. Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.
Dusty’s Beer of the Week
I was fortunate to try this from the tank at the source a couple of weeks back so my anticipation for the tin drop had me frothin! Zodiac is a 6.8% Bright IPA from Pacific Coast Drinks and it's a crusha! A hefty kettle charge of Kohatu/Superdelic/Nelson Sauvin throw down big gooseberry/white grape/lemon peel hits, while dry hop additions of Motueka/Moutere/Riwaka and Mosaic Cryo add a juicy citrus/tropical aspect with a greeny bitterness spikey carb and drying finish. An absolute banga from a brewery who can do no wrong.
Chilean “Star Wars” beer ads go viral
A vintage Chilean beer advertising campaign, integrated into the original Star Wars trilogy, has recently resurfaced online 20 years after its first broadcast appearance.
The controversial campaign cuts Chilean beer commercials into key scenes from the original Star Wars.
On March 2, X user Windy posted a clip of the ad accompanied by the following caption: “Around 2003 in Chile, when the original trilogy of Star Wars began airing on television there, they did this funny thing to avoid cutting to commercial breaks.”
During the December 2003 broadcasts of several Star Wars films, viewers were treated to the unconventional advertising strategy by channel 13 in collaboration with Cerveza Cristal, one of Chile’s most popular beer brands, BNN Breaking reported.
At the time, the channel had inserted 30-second commercials directly into the movies, with ads crafted to appear as continuations of the scenes they interrupted, integrating them so smoothly that they seemed to be part of the original films, as per BNN.
One ad reportedly featured Obi-Wan Kenobi opening a chest to reveal a stash of Cerveza Cristal, complete with rock music and the brand’s logo, while another showed Emperor Palpatine pulling out a beer bottle instead of a lightsaber.
Cristal Beer’s agency, OMD Santiago, picked up the top award in the media category at that year’s Cannes International Advertising Festival for “managing to persuade Chile’s broadcasters to allow Cristal Beer to be placed in scenes within a series of major movies.”
Leather bags made from beer waste
I have a friend who makes “vegan” bags from the likes of pineapple and cactus “leather” and that feels almost mainstream to me now … but when I read about bags made from spent grain it was a case of mind, blown.
London startup Arda Biomaterials is making leather bags out of beer (fastcompany.com)
Beer of the week No 3
Alibi Munich Helles may be the last beer I try from the Bernard Neate era of Alibi Brewing Co, but I was drinking this one in the gutted interior of the building that will house Bernard’s new project, Twofold. I joined Bernard and co-founder John Austin for a chat ahead of next month’s planned opening (more on that soon) and because the brewery wasn’t yet installed, we fell back to an Alibi brew for libation. And what a great beer. It smells like the crust of just-baked bread, with a little citrus and spice thrown in. Drinks beautifully, with impeccable sweet-bitter balance and lots of subtle flavours doing a synchronised swimming routine across your palate. Ideal for this time of year as the seasons turn. PS: The 500ml “mug” is what lagers will come in at Twofold! And you can get a personalised one via their “Mug Club”.
In the Meantime …
Asahi has announced it’s closing Meantime Brewery in Greenwich and will move the brewing of its Meantime and Dark Star beers to Fuller’s in Chiswick.
This would be the equivalent of Lion or DB moving Emerson’s or Tuatara to their main Auckland breweries — and if that happened here it would be an outrage.
But in the modern brewing world, it’s all about economics.
According to the company, the decision was made due to factors such as “leveraging extensive in-house brewing expertise and capabilities across an expansive range of beer styles” as well as the move being a bid to help “support a commitment to the growth potential of Asahi’s full UK beer brand portfolio — by creating more efficient, sustainable operations, with a solid foundation for future innovation and investment”.
The value of beer media
I’ll leave you with this very good story from our friends across the Ditch at The Crafty Pint. They sponsor the Beer Media awards at the Australian International Beer Awards and ahead of that event they looked back at the previous winners and got some great commentary on the importance of beer media.
Of course, I agree with a great deal of the sentiment expressed, notably how writers can often feel like hangers-on, or as I’ve expressed it before: the beer industry is this amazing city and I’m a tourist. It’s a sentiment captured by the writer succinctly:
Beer media is a funny thing when you think about it. It’s not making beer, packaging beer, or selling beer. At a glance, people in beer media can seem like weird hangers-on to the beer industry: like oxpeckers, those little African birds that perch on oxen and rhinos, or remoras, those sucker fish that attach to sharks and get protection and a free ride.
But what I liked most was the chats with former winners of the title reflecting on what beer-writing meant to them, particularly the thoughts of Luke Robertson, who won the award in 2015 but has since given up writing to come back to New Zealand and start Shortjaw Brewing.
It also makes me very sad, upon reading this, that the Brewers Guild of NZ decided to axe the beer media award here this year. Perhaps the story below might convince them to change their minds.
And certainly not for my sake. With the wisdom that comes from getting older, I don’t care to enter or win awards anymore but I do believe there is a thriving beer media community in New Zealand that deserves recognition — people such as Tim Newman, Denise Garland, Martin Bridges, Carla Bragagnini, Jessica Allen, David Barrington, Jed Soane, Dusty, Joshua Lee (aka Hazzy_Hunter on Insta), The Peckish Kiwi, Beers With Brucey, and many, many more. It’s a pretty vibrant part of the industry and one needed more than ever I reckon.
Marking Ten Years Of The Best Beer Media - The Crafty Pint
That’s me for another week. Thanks for coming along for the ride.
Michael Donaldson