Top of the Hops
While the Southern Hemisphere brewer looks longingly at U.S. peers going large with imperial hop monsters and higher alcohol beers, the typical New Zealand brewer is forced by circumstance to be inventive with more approachable styles. An increasing number of breweries do have a U.S.-inspired hop-driven pale ale or IPA in their range, but the core range for most brewers consists of more sessionable beers in the 5 percent ABV and below category.
The typical brewery or brewpub will usually include in its range pilseners, golden ales, hefeweizens, porters and traditional British styles. The twist with many of these beers, though is the effective use of distinctive domestic hop varieties to give them a uniquely Kiwi flavor.
And New Zealand hops are unique—if citrus and grapefruit are common aroma descriptors for many of the hops used globally today, New Zealand hops run the full gamut of tropical fruit salad aromas, with fruits such as gooseberries dominating.
These hops lend a definite New Zealand character to its brewers’ take on many traditional styles, including what is currently coming to be identified as the defining New Zealand craft beer style, the New Zealand pilsner.
Just as the hop-driven American-style pale ale came to be recognized internationally as the flag bearer of the U.S. craft beer movement, the New Zealand pilsner is coming to be a totem for the Antipodean craft beer movement.
The New Zealand version of this classic lager takes the traditional pilsner’s firm malt backbone and robust hop bitterness and adds a huge splash of these wildly aromatic local hops. The result is, as one visiting beer writer described, a beer that “has both pilsner and Sauvignon Blanc lovers reaching for the same glass.” It is immediately recognizable as a good quality and very sessional lager, but is also complex and interesting enough to please the dedicated craft beer drinker.
