Hops Aboard

hops aboard Hops can send craft brewers and beer aficionados alike into paroxysms of delight – Nicola Edmonds experiences the harvest of an ancient ingredient that’s made its home in Nelson …

Story and photography by Nicola Edmonds

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Below: Colin Brown of Lake Farm Beef. Photography by Nicola Edmonds.Um exped ullanti sam nullantia quis corem sa quis sam sa sum eum num ersped ut hicabo.

Uciis vidignis ra ventibus, optas moloraest pore.

Hops are believed to have first been used in brewing in Northern Europe around the late 8th century when (evidence suggests) the cones of the hop plant were added to ale during the brewing process.

Eight hundred years later they were enshrined in the ‘Reinheitsgebot’, the Bavarian beer purity law that stipulated only barley, hops and water could be used in the brewing of beer. While things have moved on since then, and brewers now experiment with all manner of ingredients to create new and interesting flavours in their brews (particularly since the growth of craft brewing), the hop plant and its unique ability to influence a beer remains a crucial part of the process.

Hops add bitterness to beer and from delicate to direct each variety of hops differs. The palate ranges from aromatic and spicy, to grassy, piney, or floral. There are more than 100 different varieties of the hop plant grown internationally; New Zealand grows 23 different varieties with 15 of those uniquely born and bred in this country.

No one’s quite sure whether it was English or German settlers, or both, who first brought hops to the Nelson region, but whoever it was soon discovered they’d struck it lucky. The 41 degree latitude is ideal, with just the right mix of long sunshine hours, gentle rain and minimal wind.

The Waimea, Moutere and Riwaka valleys became the centre of local hops production, and so they remain.

Colin Oldham is a third generation hops farmer in the Tadmore Valley, and one of just 17 commercial hop growers in New Zealand. He’s also the largest grower of organic hops in the world, with about a third of his land devoted specifically to the five varieties he is growing organically.

Back in 1953 Colin’s grandfather bought “a small bit of farm” nearer to town than his dairy farm. There were more than 100 small farms in the area at that time and, like most, this land already had a few hop plants in residence. During the early 1970s, Colin’s father took over the reins, buying three of the neighbouring farms and establishing hop crops over 21 hectares. When their father retired, Colin dish

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Below: Colin Brown of Lake Farm Beef.

Photography by Nicola Edmonds.Um exped ullanti sam nullantia quis corem sa quis sam sa sum eum num ersped ut hicabo. Uciis vidignis ra ventibus, optas moloraest pore, sequati consequi dolut haria andia que inullam et odi odio.

Idestotaspe con etur, aut ut mo culluptia nem re

and his brother split the hops land between them. With his wife Alana, Colin dubbed their plot ‘New Hoplands’ and the farm is now home to 18 different conventional hop varieties.

Colin is a member of New Zealand Hops Ltd, a grower cooperative responsible for the hops industry in this country.

Chief Executive, Doug Donelan, says New Zealand hops are quite different to anything on offer elsewhere in the world. “It’s our hallmark and we’re recognised for it within the international market.”

In the 1940s, an experiment into the growing of an American hop variety ended in disaster, when a soil-borne pest caused a wholesale crop failure. The New Zealand government established a Hops Research Station at Riwaka to experiment with selective breeding and in the 1970s this effort bore fruit when the world’s first seedless hops were produced. Since then a number of distinct New Zealand varieties have been produced, which have attracted plenty of international attention and not a few fans.

These local varieties such as Green Bullet, Pacific Gem

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or Southern Cross are sought after for their quality of bitterness. Doug says their acidity helps ensure that high levels of “drinkability” can be retained even in the hoppiest of beer styles, such as the New World IPAs (Indian Pale Ales). On the other hand, brewers looking to achieve a New Zealand Pilsner-style beer, for example, might use Nelson Sauvin or New Zealand Cascade, which are characterised by big punchy aromas.

The USA, UK, Europe, Japan and Australia are the major destinations for the export market with other brewer customers in over 30 countries. During harvest, much of Doug’s work is escorting various representatives of these foreign buyers; visiting hops growers here first-hand.

The growth of craft beer and home brewing has changed the choice of varieties grown in New Zealand and the volumes required to meet demand. In the past New Zealand growers have been subject to a commodities driven market, with large scale brewing companies driving prices down to a point that growers tend to exit the market until shortages encourage prices back up again. Craft brewers now form the top tier of demand for

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“New Zealand has been at the forefront of the development of unique aroma hops.”

New Zealand hops varieties – orders are smaller but there are now many more customers spreading the demand.

“Specialty hops are inextricably linked to both craft brewing and home-brewing and New Zealand has been at the forefront of the development of unique aroma hops. Craft brewing is pushing us even further down that path,” says Doug. Three new varieties have recently been released.

The plant itself is as fascinating as its properties. Hops are “diecious”, meaning there are both male and female plants. New shoots are selected in spring and trained to grow together as a “bine”. The stems grow upwards and intertwine, climbing a string draped from a network of poles

and wires that traverse the hop farms. Leviathans when given free rein, the hops plant can sprout up to 11cm of new growth in as little as 24 hours.

Sheep are often the lucky recipients of any off cuts and are also brought in to eat the leaves from the bottom of the bines, clearing the way for the vine pulling machine.

They’re even known to ignore a good feed of clover below, in favour of the hop leaves. A relative of the cannabis plant, it’s perhaps the ‘lupulin’ resin in the hops that is known to get them “flushed up”, says Colin.

Above: Colin Brown of Lake Farm Beef.

Photography by Nicola Edmonds.Um exped ullanti sam nullantia quis corem sa quis sam sa sum eum num ersped ut hicabo.

Hop cones resemble flowers (the technical term is ‘strobile’) and by late February and March the bines have grown to a

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height of up to five metres and will be laden with flowers. When harvest is deemed ready to start the whole bine is cut off near its base and transported to a picking machine that separates the cones from the female plants.

The fresh cones then pass through a kilning process to reduce their moisture content to a level of around 8-10 per cent so they can be stored in bales without deteriorating. It’s a relatively gentle process with a maximum temperature of just 60°C and takes place over six to eight hours. Colin uses a ’tipping’ kiln, in which the cones pass downward in stages through five different layers of slatted drying floors.

Warm air is blown up through the hops from a furnace fan at the bottom. Colin takes a handful of cones from the bottom layer and grinds them down in one of two ancient kitchen blenders devoted to the task, before testing the powder in a moisture metre. The final bed is then cooled down and the cones pass along a conveyer belt, finally dropping into a rustling green dune of hops on the floor of the conditioning room, ready to be baled.

Colin even has his own brew on tap close by. So far, the ‘Totara’ range is only available to locals and includes a particularly fine German Dark Lager style beer, dubbed ‘After Dark’. The brewers (there are five of them) aren’t too bothered about classification though – it’s the taste that counts. ‘We made it up in our heads,’ says Colin. ‘We’re only farmers!’

While wife Alana has established her own skincare range using ingredients from the hop plants and there have been other side projects, for Colin, hop farming is where it’s at. “It’s a fun thing - I love it! I’m passionate about it.”

Below: Colin Brown of Lake Farm Beef.

Photography by Nicola Edmonds.Um exped ullanti sam nullantia quis corem sa quis sam sa sum eum num ersped ut hicabo. Uciis vidignis ra ventibus, optas moloraest pore, sequati consequi dolut haria andia que inullam et odi odio.

Idestotaspe con etur, aut ut mo culluptia nem re

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