New terroir, new flavours.
We’ve been playing around with the impact of different terroirs around hops for a while now. It's amazing what a particular environment can give to hops, and what those hops can then give to a beer.
Our exploration of new terroirs have taken us now to new heights - literally. Garston Hops, situated in the mountainous highlands of Southland, are to our knowledge, the world's southernmost hop farm -making it an absolute game changer for hop growing terroir here in New Zealand.
Garston Hops are an established 5th generation family sheep farm in the Northern Southland region that have recently branched out into the exciting venture of growing hops, having planted their first trial plants during a snowstorm back in 2016. They’ve found that sheep and hops farming practices complement each other extensively and are an excellent use of their land – a successful two-tier farming practice.
We’ve been itching to work with the team at Garston Hops, with Pete and the team eagerly scurrying down there for hop harvest to see firsthand what impact this unique terroir has on their hops. Boy, we have not been disappointed...
“James MacNamee's Garston hop farm is taking commercial hop growing in NZ to a whole new place. With hotter summers and far colder winters the New Zealand varieties grown here seem to show a noticeably different character to those further north in traditional hop growing areas. We visited the farm for their harvest (it had just been snowing) and we were blown away with their Nelson Sauvin, Rakau and Cascade samples. It's an exciting hint at what is possible as hop farmers in New Zealand experiment with new terroir.” - Pete.
Picking Hops In The Snow - West Coast Alpine IPA. Our first foray into using Garston Hops, and as the name candidly suggests - the Nelson Sauvin, Rakau and Cascade hops used in this beer were literally picked in the snow. Resulting in an extraordinary drop with a light golden hue, sweet tropical fruit nose, bursting with fresh cut grapefruit citrus, pineapple and nectarine. Making for a truly unique taste of the south. Brewed exclusively with our dear friends at Garston Hops. You can try our first Alpine IPA here.
Thanks for having us Garston, we couldn't be more excited to see what your hoppy future holds.
To be continued…
The team at GP.