Some beer styles have been with us for hundreds of years. Porter for instance has been around since the 1700s. And Germans have been making various forms of lager dating back to the 1500s.
But there are other beer types that are relatively new “inventions” — the most obvious being the “Hazy” IPA which has been around for only 15 years but it’s only in the past three or four years that it’s been accepted as an official “style:”.
Styles are determined by those charged with running beer competitions such as World Beer Cup, the world’s most prestigious beer-judging event which is to be held in Nashville, Tennessee this month (May). Another group that rubber-stamps styles is the Beer Judge Certification Programme (BJCP).
The World Beer Cup has 103 official styles of beer but many of them have a multitude of sub-classes with the bulk having historical links back to England, Ireland, Germany and Belgium, while many of the modern styles are, to quote The Boss, born in the USA.
Among their recent additions to judging are two specific New Zealand categories, which is an acknowledgement of the role New Zealand hops play on the international stage. They judge New Zealand-style pale ale and IPA.
We recently had the annual hop harvest in Nelson, which goes from late February to early April, and brewers from around the world came here to try to get the pick of bunch. They sample all the freshly harvested hops trying to decide what they want to use for the year ahead.
One of the reasons New Zealand hops are so valued is the breeding programme run by Plant & Food Research, which has focused on creating unique hops. The latest is called Superdelic which has flavours of berries, mango and bubblegum! Plus our small production volume creates FOMO.
There’s the likes of Nelson Sauvin, with its unrivalled sauvignon blanc grape character, passionfruit-driven Riwaka, pineappley Nectaron, and the lime-zest of Motueka plus many more.
So what is New Zealand-style pale ale or IPA?
The World Beer Cup says a Kiwi pale ale should be easy drinking, refreshing with distinctive hop aromas of tropical fruit, passionfruit, stone fruit, cut grass, or diesel. And the IPA should “exhibit attributes such as floral, fruity (tropical, stone fruit, and other), sulphur/diesel-like, citrusy, and grassy”.
Some good examples of NZ IPAs include 8 Wired’s Hopwired, which is a big punchy beer that’s as much wine gums as grapes on the flavour front, or Emerson’s Reverb, with grapefruit, grape and juicy fruit chewing gum flavours.
In the pale ales, McLeod’s from Northland do a classic with Paradise Pale Ale. It’s got hints of papaya and passionfruit undercut by lime juice and orange zest, while Liberty Brewing’s Oh Bro is a classic of the style with sweet orange on a biscuity malt.
Michael Donaldson
hoppiness.co.nz