The hop vine flowers only once a year, meaning brewers have only one chance to use them fresh in a brew before they get dried for storage. Ralph Bungard explains.

Hops have been an integral part of most beer styles now for centuries, with the first use recorded as far back as the 9th Century. Before that, a combination of herbs such as dandelion, horehound, marigold and burdock, among others, made up a “gruit” that was used to bitter beer and prevent spoiling – just as modern hops do now.

Since hops became the go-to herb for (most!) brewers they have spread around the globe and become the focus of intense plant-breeding programmes designed to intensify and diversify the flavour characteristics they impart to beer.

When brewers talk about hops, they are more specifically talking about the female flowers of the hop vine. The hop vine dies down in the winter and each spring grows up from its underground rhizome (a big storage root like a kumara). It flowers in late summer, and it is the mature female flowers that the brewers seek.

Flowering happens only once a year, but brewers and beer drinkers like me like to keep their habit going all year round! To help us out, those clever hop growers harvest all the flowers at peak condition, dry them and store them so that they can be used in brewing until the next year’s crop.

Once a year though, brewers get a chance to use the freshly harvested “green” or “wet” hops to make beer. In recent years this has become something of a harvest celebration for craft brewers, hop growers and beer nerds alike. Hops are harvested off the vine at dawn, then rapidly chilled and rushed under refrigeration to brewers nationwide. Within a few hours of picking, the hops have been added to seasonal Fresh Hop brews.

Look out for Fresh Hop beers from your local brewer hitting bars in early autumn. They should be highly aromatic, with flavours often described as fresh, green grassiness that underpins the usual character of the hop. A real seasonal treat!

With Fresh Hop beers, fresh is certainly best. They will be rare and fleeting so keep an eye on brewers’ social media for release dates and availability. If you are after a one-stop sampler of locally brewed Fresh Hop beers, Three Boys Brewery run a Canterbury Fresh Hop Beer Festival that showcases the best from local brewers. Keep an eye on the website for the announcement. Certainly a “Fresh Hop Festival” sounds a lot more enticing than a “Gruit Fest”!

threeboysbrewery.co.nz