BREWERS INTELLIGENCE THE HOP REPORT

At Swansea’s Beer Riff, brewer Rhys Pillai is delighted he’s secured his Nectaron hops this year.

“I’m completely sold on it,” Pillai says, after first brewing with the New Zealand wonder hop last November in his rotational release “It’s All About …” “People who’ve contracted it this year will be rapt. It’s just going to blow up and I think it will be flying out the door.”

New Zealand Hops Ltd says British brewers who want to get their hands on this wonder-hop will be able to do so, with plenty available after the hop’s justcompleted third season of commercial production.

“It’s going to throw a punch at those American varieties,” says Pillai. “It’s almost the ultimate hop for those fruit flavours. You can blend American hops to try to get that flavour whereas here it’s in one hop. And you don’t even have to use crazy amounts of it.”

Nectaron was released in 2021 after 17 years of breeding, research, and trials. A gigantic cone, physically (it can fill the entire palm of your hand), it’s also a giant when it comes to flavour and aroma.

“The descriptors on the spec sheet are bang on, the punchy pineapple, passionfruit and peach coming off it is just … wow. What a hop,” Pillai says.

Nectaron’s performance, especially as a dry hop, reflects the chemical composition: high in total oils (1.5-2ml per 100g), low in cohumulone (26-28%) , high humulene-to-carophyllene ratio (3.6), and relatively high alpha acids (11-13%) for an aroma hop.

Nectaron is partially named for the scientist who bred it for New Zealand Hops Ltd, Dr Ron Beatson, formerly of the government-owned Plant & Food and the man known as the godfather of Kiwi hops.

He said there was once a saying within

NZ Hops that they were looking for “the golden fleece, the unobtainable one … a hop with good oils, good all-round chemistry and which suited growers and brewers alike — and that would be Nectaron.”

Pillai started using Nectaron last year and he’s found that while it stands out brilliantly on its own, it works extremely well with other varieties.

He doesn’t use it in active fermentation, believing he gets a “better expression” of Nectaron’s true character without biotransformation. He thinks it’s the New Zealand hop variety that will help British craft beer drinkers understand what Kiwi hops bring.

“While lots of brewers use New Zealand hops, consumers don’t fully understand the flavours of those hops, but Nectaron is a good hop to bridge that gap, because it’s so fruitful.”

James Heffron, at Verdant in Cornwall, has built his brewery around extensive use of New Zealand hops, mainly Nelson Sauvin and Motueka, but he’s learning about Nectaron and has 2.5 tonnes contracted for this year.

“It’s got pineapple, stone fruit and other fruits I can’t even name, but it doesn’t shy away from being dank and that’s integral to the hop. It seems to punch through really well into the beer. You smell the bag of hops and that’s what you get in the beer.”

Nectaron has been available in New Zealand for a number of years when it was known by its trial name, Hort 4337, so brewers downunder are familiar with its powerful flavour, smooth bitterness and high level of oils.

Since its release it’s been a go-to for fruitforward, less-bitter hazy IPAs but there’s an emerging trend for its use in less imposing beers.

Grant Caunter spent 20 years with Heineken before he decided — mid-

Covid and mid-life — to give up beer, move back to New Zealand and start State of Play, New Zealand’s only nonalcoholic brew brand. Nectaron was a revelation to him when he returned home from Europe.

“I used to think that the signature of New Zealand hops was Nelson Sauvin but when I smelled and tasted Nectaron I though ‘wow, this is the signature of New Zealand hops and the future of New Zealand hops’.”

He uses Nectaron in an unfiltered non-alcoholic beer, noting that it brings “power” in the form of a “massive fruit bowl, in-your-face aroma” followed by a backbone of “adult bitterness”.

“With heavily dry-hopped beers you often get a big hello and not much of a goodbye, but with Nectaron you get the nice hello but also a sustained bitterness for the goodbye.”

At multi-award winning Urbanaut in the Auckland suburb of Kingsland, Yorkshireborn brewer Dave Huff uses Nectaron in only one beer, the brewery’s biggestseller — a 2.5% session IPA called Jaco.

“I used to think a hazy shouldn’t go below 4% — just for the body — but when the challenge arose I thought maybe I can make it 2.5% and that’s where Nectaron came in. It’s a showstopper.”

It works in the session IPA because its high oil content adds texture and palate weight, while the low cohumulone means he can ramp up the flavour without adding aggressive bitterness.

Chris Ward at Steam Brewing uses a lot of Nectaron for one of his bigger clients, Bach Brewing, notably in their Planet Nectaron IPA. Apart from the “dominant, round flavour” he says Nectaron delivers its flavour punch in velvet glove of smooth bitterness.

“Nectaron has a range of fruit character that spans across tropical and stone fruit territory at high intensity. It can be successfully single hopped like a Citra or Mosaic, and similarly provide a solid base when used in high proportion that allows for synergy with other hops to create something special.

“Although you could happily go 100% Nectaron, I’d generally be recommending maxing out 50-60% of hop load. As with any variety of hop, each brewer will have an opinion of when enough is enough, but I’ve preferred the beers where we’ve used Nectaron at high rates to be accompanied by a blend of NZ, or NZ and American, hops to get the best overall balance of hop flavour. “An added bonus is that when used at the right rate Nectaron doesn’t have the perceived ‘harsh’ bitterness that some other Australasian hops can bring, meaning you can add more than its counterparts with lower risk of overdoing it.”

Brian Watson of Good George is one of New Zealand’s most experienced brewers and he said Nectaron is critical to their low carb hazy pale ale, Social League.

“When you’re down around 1000 with your gravity, or zero plato, you’re expecting the hops to do some heavy lifting in terms of adding perceived body, and Nectaron is essential to that. But it’s also adding more fruit character without adding bitterness — you can’t add bitterness to those low carb beers without the residual sugar to balance, so it’s about punching flavour and aroma in there without bitterness and Nectaron does that.”

Huge fruit flavours, exceptional aroma, smooth bitterness, plays well with other hops, works over-time when used as a dry-hop … no wonder everyone wants to get their hands on this hop. The once “unobtainable” is now widely-available.