Ever perused the wine list at your favourite restaurant and thought about whether the 06 Shiraz on offer is a preferable choice to the 07 Cabernet? Sure we know the wines are well made, but was the 2006 summer hotter or colder than the 2007? And would we be able to tell anyway?

Ask a wine maker what they think and I would imagine you’ll get an emphatic “absolutely”, and brewers have the same relationship with our annual flavour contributor, the all powerful Humulus Lupulus, or hop plant. Hops, picked late in summer and grown in usually very thin horizontal bands across the globe, provide brewers with the ability to flavour their brews not just with palate balancing bitterness, but aromas of citrus, grass, wood, tropical fruit, earth, spice, and many more tantalising fragrances. And as with many annuals, including our friends the grape as mentioned before, they change with the seasons and the years. These last few harvests, brewers have seen hops change dramatically with some hops almost disappear off the market due to low yields, and more importantly change with the weather.

This has had an impact on our beers, many of which are hop driven. The IPA, a beer with a mouth puckering 50 Bitterness Units, has most recently seen a quite interesting development with notes of earth, forest floor, tobacco leaf and spice appear with the newer batches of hop coming through. If you’re quick, you can sample this interesting problem child at a pub or bottle shop near you, and let us know what you think! As we move with the seasons and our seasonal ingredients, join us in the journey where we work with natures gifts to bring you something interesting, flavoursome, and sometimes just that little bit surprising