17 May

The Naked Hop: Fresh Hop 2018

May 17, 2018About Wine Glengarry

A new monthly publication coming to you from the Glengarry team of beer experts, where we explore everything beer related. Here you’ll find an in depth look into the beer world and what makes it tick. View the full issue online here.

What a weekend! Saturday midday, fresh hop 2018 kicked off. Not even the bad weather was going to dampen #freshhop18 for the people. 5 Bars, 29 beers, 5 hours. It was a long day to say the least, but some stunning examples of fresh hop beers and some really interesting style choices. Thanks to the team at SOBA and Cryer Malt for organising the event and for putting on shuttle buses from Brewbus NZ to shuttle everyone around. The 5 participating bars also did a stellar job putting up with us all: Brothers Beer CWD, Brewers Co-operative, Vultures Lane and Galbraith’s Alehouse. And of course a massive shout out to all the breweries that have this year brewed amazing fresh hop beers!

The day started at Brothers Beer with some Garage Project, Behemoth, North End, Beer Baroness, Brothers Beer and Cassels. Stand out for me here was definitely Behemoth Cheech and Chong; it was about as hazy as my memories are now. The Brothers Beer fresh hop was also rated highly by us. From here we wandered up to Brewers Co-op, and opted for half pints of Hop Federation Green Limousine, Baylands WaiFly 5, Croucher Fresh Out of Vegas, Tuatara Hops and Streams, Parrotdog Microflora Specimen B2 and Rocky Knob  & Wigram Pacifica Airways. Parrotdog’s Fresh Hop was a sour and it was so dope. An interesting choice of style, but it totally worked; it was refreshing and piney all at the same time.

Back on the bus and up to Vultures lane, 5 more beers, feeling good. Sawmill Black IPA, Sawmill White IPA, Deep Creek Lupulin Sauvin IPA, Outlier Cartel Fresh Hop Apple Wine and Zeelandt Pulling Cones. An interesting choice for Outlier going for an apple wine, it worked, we enjoyed it. Zeelandt Pulling Cones was a stand out in this line up! Fresh piney goodness, good weight and balance, just a great example of fresh hop. Bus pulled up, time for the Lumsden. By this point we had consumed a lot of beer, it was time to chill a little, and have some good food. Pizza and a pint of Parrotdog sour did the trick and then we carried on up to Galbraith’s to round off the day.
Galbraith’s was the last stop of the day, 5 more fresh hop beers and a palate that was barely holding on. Funk Estate Round Trippin’, Good George Fresh Hop XPA, 8 Wired Fresh Hopwired, Eagle Brewing Fresh Hop Pale Ale and Hallertau Fresh Hop Kolsch. Good George nailed it; very floral and subtle spice in this XPA, and Eagle Brewing was an explosion of resin.
All in all, a great Fresh Hop season and some awesome beers once again. Keg availability is limited; if you come across any of these brews grab a pint while you can. Only a few will be canned/bottled. Keep an eye on our emails to find out what will be in stock at our stores!

Hannah Beaumont