Epic Green Machine - Fresh Hop IPA

Fresh Hop 2021

This is the first year in ages since we have done a fresh hop beer.

How come it's been so long? Well in the past we had been getting our hops via road freight from Nelson which in some cases with delays it can take up to seven days before you can get them into the brew. This can be very detrimental to the intense aroma of the fresh hops. As you would imagine once a flower is picked it quickly deteriorates and ultimately starts to compost. So the faster you get it from the farm to the brewery then the better the beer will be. The part we are trying to preserve and take advantage of is incredible aromatic volatiles of the hop flower. So this year we did everything we could to get the hops from the farm in the best condition possible.

The hops were picked on Monday15th, delivered to NZ Hops and cooled down overnight. This slows down the deterioration process. Then the next morning they were picked up around 8am and sent to Nelson airport. Then put on an Air NZ flight to Auckland where Luke and Sten took a couple of cars to Auckland Airport to pick them up and drive them straight to the brewery. They smelt amazing, and were still cold from the chiller at NZ Hops in Nelson. Once at the brewery they were added straight to the brew to give us the maximum freshness and massiveness of aroma. Farm to brew in under 24 hours. It cost alot, but we wanted to give you the best experience we possibly could.

Why now? There is a new and exciting hop varieties that has recently been released called Nectaron (The "Ron" part is a hat tip to the legendary hop breeder Dr Ron Beatson for his significant contribution to the breeding of this hop variety as well as his incredible contribution to not only the hop breeding programme in NZ but also the general hop industry on the planet). Nectaron delivers the incredible hop characters of tropical fruits and spiciness. As usual we have presented these special hops in a trademark IPA style.

We can't wait for you to try it.