American craft breweries began seriously researching Southern Hemisphere hop varieties last year because many hops varieties grown in the United States are becoming more expensive and more difficult to get as the craft-brewing industry expands and more consumers embrace craft beer. The main Australian hop regions are the states of Tasmania and Victoria; the main varieties grown there are the high-alpha varieties Millennium and Super Pride. Together these two varieties amount to almost one-third of Australian hop production, followed by Pride of Ringwood and Topaz, which together account for roughly one-quarter. The other varieties of note are Nelson Sauvin, Victoria, Galaxy, Ella, Enigma, Topaz, Southern Cross, Motueka, Vic’s Secret and Pacific Jade. New Zealand and Australian hop breeders had been attaining tropical fruit quality with varieties such as Nelson Sauvin and Galaxy. Ella has spicy, floral notes, along with stone fruit flavors. Topaz sports some of the piney, dank notes that American hops have. Vic Secret is an unusual hop that imparts earthy aromas along with passion fruit and tropical notes. Enigma offers raspberry and melon flavors and aromas. Today, Peaks and Pints presents a flight of craft beers brewed with Southern Hemisphere hops that we call Craft Beer Crosscut 6.29.17: A Flight of Down Under.
Omnipollo Mackaper Pale Ale
6% ABV, 38 IBU
Mackaper — an Omnipollo pale ale built from equal parts malt, wheat and oats plus hopped profoundly with Mosaic and dry-hopped with Galaxy — isn’t just a beer, it’s also the name of a Stockholm-based band fusing jazzy, proggy, organ instrumentals with dreamy synthesizer pop and punctuating it all with chaotic ramblings. Bitter grapefruit pith emerges immediately, along with resin and passionfruit — the beer, not the band.
Backwoods Scaler Single Hop
6.3% ABV, 50 IBU
Jim Waters taught his sons, Kevin and Tom, how to homebrew and carpentry before the young lads made their way to Eastern Washington University. In between studies the two lads scribbled out a game plan, logo and brewery concept and followed through to the 2012 opening day of Backwoods Brewing Co. in Carson, Washington. Their first brews pouring from their pub’s taps were off a one-barrel system incorporating locally produced hops, grain and yeast. They now operate on a 20-barrel system in their new Stevenson facility, making beer for both draft and package, with their Carson taproom still jam-packed with locals and tourists. The second seasonal in Backwoods Brewing’s Experimental Forest Series, Scaler Single Hop IPA is brewed and dry hopped exclusively with Vic Secret hops, harvested out of Australia. Delicious notes of passionfruit, pineapple and pine, with a crisp refreshing finish make this IPA a perfect choice for summer.
Crux Cast Out India Pale Ale
7.6% ABV, 60 IBU
Crux Fermentation Project’s Cast Out IPA features the Galaxy hop from Australia, a country famously populated by England’s cast out convicts. Cast Out IPA employs these hops aggressively from hop back to dry hopping stages. Yet the result is a balanced and bronzy ale, with medium hop bitterness complemented by moderate maltiness, showcasing aromas and flavors reminiscent of passion fruit.
Avery Twenty Four
9.4% ABV
In 1993, Adam Avery’s brewed his first professional beers in a garage off an alley in Boulder, Colorado. In 1996, Avery was among the first breweries in Colorado to offer an IPA. Twenty-two years after launching Avery Brewing Co., Avery and his dad, Larry, built a $30 million production facility with the goal to brew upward of 70,000 barrels a year. Twenty-four years later, Avery brewed an imperial IPA with Idaho 7, Simcoe, Vic’s Secret and Columbus hops for notes of pineapple, mango, kumquat with edges of wood. The 9.4 percent ABV doesn’t play a major role in the flavor. Likewise, bitterness is restrained for this style.
Stone Enjoy By 7.4.17 Unfiltered IPA
9.4% ABV, 90 IBU
Stone Brewing’s hop-driven quest to deliver the most devastatingly fresh IPA on the planet facilitated a paradigm shift in 2012 with the launch of Stone Enjoy By IPA. The timer has started and we’re on the clock for Stone’s Enjoy By 7.4.17 Unfiltered IPA. Brewed with 12 different hops — Nugget, Super Galena, Simcoe, Delta, Target, Amarillo, Cascade, Galaxy, Citra, Nelson Sauvin, Motueka and Helga — the California brewery brewed it specifically not to last after the Fourth of July. This version pours a hazy orange gold with a cotton-candy head. By letting this IPA go unfiltered, its peach and tropical fruit hop flavors are amplified. Expect citrus and sweet honey with each sip.
