Today we get to celebrate one of our favourite times of year—the annual hop harvest! Every March in the Southern Hemisphere hop plants mature and their flowers are harvested so that we can enjoy their fresh, hoppy flavour all year long. This year, as in previous years, we received a load of freshly picked hops from Great Southern Hops, located just a few kilometres from the brewery. Beedleup and Victoria varieties of hops were picked early in the morning, delivered to the brewery, and used in a brew the very same day. Our friends at Grain Cru Cellarbrations Carlisle and Vic Park joined us on the day and lent a hand in brewing this special batch.
But that’s just the beginning of the story! This year we tried out a new technique, and we believe we are the first brewery in Australia to do so. We used liquid nitrogen to flash freeze these hops to extremely low temperatures. Once the hops were completely frozen we could shatter the flowers like shards of glass. Not only was this incredibly fun, but it actually helps deliver more flavour into the beer.
Every hop flower has hiding inside of it oily glands filled with a substance called lupulin. This lupulin carries the majority of the intense flavours and aromas that we want to extract from the hops. When we buy commercially prepared hops, the hop processor has already done the job of shredding the hops so we can access this lupulin. But with freshly picked hops straight from the farm the hops are still fully intact, making it hard to extract the lupulin. So we devised a method of breaking open the hops using the icy cold power of liquid nitrogen!
We believe this is the most intense, fresh, and delicious wet hop beer we have produced so far! Hop farmers spend so much time and effort every year to deliver high quality, full-flavoured hops. It’s up to us brewers to try and squeeze every last ounce of flavours from these hops, and we think this year is a real leap forward in this process. Grab a cold can or frosty pint and let us know if you agree!
Special thanks to Great Southern Hops and Grain Cru Cellarbrations Carlisle and Vic Park! Get it first at these locations.
Click on the can to purchase.
