Bract Brewing Programme - NZ Hops

This series has also been a cask and keg exclusive, outside of a few occasions. We first canned the beer during lockdown - with a tank full of delicious beer and no pubs for it to go to, our hand was forced. We’ve also canned versions for our Advent Calendars and other special occasions.

This beer, however, is our way of not only experimenting, but celebrating the massive variety of hops available in our arsenal. Every so often, we will package this beer into small-pack to truly make the most of a brew with some special hops; today, we’d like to tell you about one of those occasions. 

Introducing Suspended in New Zealand, featuring Bract NZH-104 hops from NZ Hops.

The hop aficionados amongst you will already be familiar with many of NZ Hops lineup. Hops like Nelson Sauvin and Motueka are quite commonplace nowadays, with some outliers in the range like Wai-iti, Rakau and Riwaka swiftly gaining popularity, along with the newer kids on the block like Superdelic and Nectaron, a hop with an incredible 17 years of development time, before a commercial release in 2021.

Hear what Luke from Yakima Chief Hops says about tasting hops!

The “Bract Brewing Programme” is an initiative by NZ Hops to help them to continue delivering amazing new hop varieties. Using selected brewers from all around the world to trial hops, they take on the feedback, which forges the path in which these developmental hops take. We’re delighted to be a part of that number. 

Here is what NZ HOPS say about this awesome new hop: 

NZH-104 is a triploid selection crossed in 2009 through our partnership programme with Plant & Food Research. NZH-104 is derived from a cross of a New Zealand bred tetraploid mother which has both North American and European ancestry. NZH-104’s male parent has been used extensively in Plant & Food Research crosses as it produces high performing (female) progeny. It is a medium to late maturing selection, with a good yield potential and entered the advanced grower trials based on its outstanding flavour and aroma in pilot brewed beers. NZH-104 has shown sweet stone and tropical fruit characters, along with pine notes. Pale Ales and IPA’s would benefit from this hop.

SENSORY ATTRIBUTES

Stone Fruit — Pine — Tropical Fruit

Suspended in has always been the perfect vehicle for us to play around with hops, and what they can bring to beer. We even used it as a developmental tool for “Refractions”, which became Lumina. The last special-hop focus Suspended beer to be canned was “Suspended in Azacca”, which used fresh frozen whole cone hops. With this beer utilising more commonplace T90 hop pellets, we are super excited about future usage. Tasting the beer, we know we’re onto a winner and hope to see more hops from the Bract programme becoming a regular feature in future beers. 

Suspended in New Zealand is available now!

BUY SUSPENDED IN NEW ZEALAND