Eight of New Zealand’s top breweries – Baylands, Behemoth, Epic, Garage Project, Liberty, Parrotdog, Sawmill and Urbanaut – are working with New World to give supermarket shoppers access to a limited edition range of beers brewed using freshly-picked New Zealand hops.
Expected to be available in-store on April 21 (the exact date may differ slightly from store to store), the beers’ fresh origins mean they are available in very limited quantities and for a short time each year.
“Timing and temperature are critical to the recipe, and part of New World’s commitment is to transport the fresh beer from each brewery as soon as it’s ready to more than 140 stores around the country through a constantly cold supply chain,” says Chris Anderson, Merchandise Manager for Liquor at Foodstuffs.
“This ensures every brew reaches the beer chiller shelves in perfect condition.
“Our brewers, and their fans, demand quality and it is important to get the logistics spot on at every step of the way with these delicate beers.
“Essentially, we are extending the care usually shown to fragile produce to the beer category, and everyone from the hop growers to the brewers, to the in-store liquor managers, have an important role to play.”
From early March, brewing teams collected their chosen hop cones and many then airfreighted them back by chartered plane within mere hours of harvest, as it’s essential that the fragile, and often volatile, hops are kept pristine to get the very best of their flavours and aromas.
Luke Nicholas, founder of Epic Beer, says the continued growth in popularity of New Zealand hops, and consumer excitement around fresh hop beers, makes it an exciting time for the New Zealand hop growing industry and brewers.
So much so, the Epic team have made their first fresh hop beer in five years.
“It’s no secret I’m a fan of brewing for big hop flavours,” he says. “At Epic, we typically source our hops from the United States, but our local farmers are doing a phenomenal job developing the New Zealand hop industry with some amazingly unique and aromatic varietals available right in our own backyard.”
Quantities of each beer will be extremely limited, given the prized nature of the fresh hop ingredient, and factoring in that more of the liquid volume is lost in fresh hop brewing compared to brewing with the dried and pelletised hops used year-round.
More information on the full Fresh Hops at New World range can be found at
www.newworld.co.nz/discover/beer/fresh-hops.
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