Fresh hop season is here – Michael Donaldson has some tips on great new releases to look out for...

April is the month when you can’t move for fresh hop beers. The hop harvest takes place from late February to late March and most of the beers made with fresh hops start hitting the shelves and taps in April.

Fresh hops are also known as ‘wet hops’, because they haven’t been kiln- dried, or ‘whole cones’ as opposed to pelletised hops, and sometimes ‘green hops’ as they’re so freshly picked.

No matter what they’re called, beers made with these fresh hops have an X-factor that makes them must-haves for all craft beer enthusiasts – and on that note, they are exclusively the domain of craft breweries because big breweries are simply too big to go down this path.

This fresh hop season promises to be one of the best in the past decade, based on the hot, sunny summer that growers enjoyed in the Tasman region, which remains the prime growing area for hops – but certainly not the only growing area these days. Given the great weather and the massive progress in quality we’ve seen from New Zealand breweries over the past 10 years, I expect this season’s fresh hop releases to be the best we’ve seen, or rather, tasted.

Another thing we get in fresh hop season are beers that specifically identify the hops that go into them, and because the hop characters are often intensified it’s a great way to explore what different hops bring to the beers.

So, what should we look out for? First up, try to get your hands on some Hop Federation Green Limousine. Often a benchmark beer, the team at Hop Federation are making it for the first time in their new brewery in Motueka, and they say the new brew kit really accentuates hop flavours – so expect this to be banging.

Emerson’s Sticky Digits won a Gold medal at last year’s New Zealand Beer Awards – quite a feat for a fresh hop beer released some months earlier – suggesting it was technically flawless as well as tasty. They were so pleased with that result they’re doing it again.

Sprig + Fern produces several fresh hop beers each year, but their Harvest Pilsner has become a flagship and this year they are doing it with a trial hop known as NZH-106, a variety that is already making quite a stir and which featured in a couple of excellent Sprig + Fern releases last year – Headliner and Encore.

If you’re looking for something different, Shining Peak are doing a pilsner, Oapui Road, made with Taranaki-grown Riwaka hops, while Altitude Brewing will have a release with Garston-grown hops from Southland.

And in something of a new development, there will be at least two fresh hop ciders on the market. Traditional cidermakers Peckham’s are joining forces with Duncan’s in Paraparaumu to create a fresh hop cider – an experience that’s sure to capture the essence of autumn – while Urbanaut are also doing a fresh hop cider in their new Kihi range.

Some breweries also choose to do fresh hop versions of existing beers, which offers a great compare-and-contrast opportunity.

A couple of these releases include Tuatara doing a fresh hop version of their gold medal-winning Regenerate Pilsner, while Pacific Coast are releasing a fresh hop version of their incredibly popular Double Pilsner.

And other top-quality annual releases include Garage Project One Day In March, Liberty Invictus, Bach Sticky Buds, Panhead Fresh Hop Vandal, and Baylands Waifly.

Finally, in one of the most adventurous plays of the season, Double Vision are doing three themed beers designed to be consumed in sequence: Outbreak 24, The Undead, and Hop Hunter. Each release is numbered, comes in a collectible glow-in- the-dark can, and has an accompanying comic book story.

Michael Donaldson is a Beer Writer of the Year, journalist and author

beernation.co.nz