Small, Green And Phenomenal

“What’s small, green, comes from New Zealand and is incredibly popular with Britain’s brewers?” The Independent’s Will Hawkes asks. “No, not Kiwi fruits, although someone will surely make a beer with them sooner or later. The answer, of course, is hops, and the Nelson Sauvin variety in particular. ‘Nelson Sauvin is phenomenal,’ says Matt Clarke, 32, the head brewer at Cumbria’s Hawkshead in the UK. ‘It’s got that very strong grapefruit, crisp, clean flavour. It’s a great hop.’ New Zealand has won a reputation for high-quality hops of late: as well as Nelson Sauvin (so named because of its similarity to the grape variety Sauvignon Blanc, which also thrives in New Zealand), there’s Green Bullet, Riwaka and Motueka, to name but three. Clarke used all four of them in his New Zealand Pale Ale, which was one of the beers of 2011.”