The Pursuit of Hoppiness

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Altitude Brewing Reach Great Heights

3 weeks ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Queenstown’s Altitude Brewing stormed through the Australian International Beer Awards in Melbourne last week. Altitude were crowned Champion Small International Brewery and took home the trophy for Modern Pale Ale with their flagship beer Sled Dog. They won four gold medals — Sled Dog, Crush Party Pilsner, Southern Lights NZ Pale Ale and Moments of Bliss IPA. In total, they had 24 medals from 26 entries with 14 silvers and six bronze.
Clayton Hops Harvest Report

1 month ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Clayton Hops, one of New Zealand’s leading hop growers, has just dropped their 2025 hop harvest report. Following on the heels of NZ Hops Ltd’s report the other week, this one again highlights a significant reduction in hop production in line with global trends. Clayton Hops, which accounts for about 40% of the annual NZ harvest, took a birds-eye view of the industry as a whole, combining their data with that of NZ Hops’ to get a full picture.
Hop Flakes — Kiwi Invention Set To Revolutionise Hops | Pursuit of Hoppiness

1 month ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Hop flakes — a revolutionary breakthrough in hops processing — is being driven out of hop farm in Nelson using technology from the medicinal marijuana industry in the US. There’s been a wealth of hop innovations over recent years, from oils to cryo-hops, to thiol-boosting products like Phantasm. But this is one of the more surprising.
Parrotdog Hatch New APA to Replace Falcon (R.I.P.)

1 month ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Parrotdog made a real splash this week the launch of Raptor, an American Pale Ale that replaces their popular and award-winning Falcon APA. As a long-time lover of Falcon, I was curious as to why you’d swap out one APA for another (with an admittedly different flavour profile) rather than just tweaking and rebranding the existing beer.
Superdelic Defies Global Hop Downturn

1 month ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Superdelic — the most recent commercial hop variety released by NZ Hops Ltd — is proving a winner, defying the global downturn in hop demand with the 2025 harvest completely sold out. Superdelic was released in 2023 and in its third full season there was three times as much grown as last year — and it was all sold before harvest. And this is despite NZ Hops Ltd having reduce its overall crop by 25% to match global demand.
Winter (Ales) Is Coming ...

1 month ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

After a three-year hiatus, Wellington’s favourite little beer festival is back!Winter Ales Festival began in 2009, run by the Society of Beer Advocates (SOBA), as a celebration of the darker, warmer, stronger, and all-around wintry beer styles. It started as the Matariki beer festival at the Boatshed on Wellington’s waterfront but soon morphed into something much bigger.
Distributor Hop ANd Vine Explains Liquidation

1 month ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Prominent Christchurch-based distributor Hop And Vine says the loss of three potential new customers combined with changing drinking habits and tough economic conditions led to their liquidation. Hop And Vine and another company it half-owned, ABV Beverages, both went into liquidation this month, leaving several breweries out of pocket to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars.
Mac Hops Celebrates 125 Years Growing Hops

2 months ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Mac Hops in Motueka celebrated 125 years of growing hops with a bumper harvest, but it was also a harvest that summed up the tough nature of hop-growing — both now and historically. “We had some great yields come through but unfortunately it’s not a great year to have good yields,” says Brent McGlashan, the latest in a long line of hop-growing McGlashans — fifth generation in fact.
Fresh Hops — A Cheeky Guide | Pursuit of Hoppiness

2 months ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Having written about fresh hops for around 15 years I sometimes wonder if there’s anything new to say — but after talking to American hop professor Tom Shellhammer recently, I find myself not only wanting to sample as many fresh hop beers as possible, to try all the hop expressions, all the regional differences. My conversation with Tom re-informed what I already know while reinforcing how little I do know about hops.
Aussie Pirate Washes Ashore in NZ

2 months ago | hoppiness.co.nz | Michael Donaldson

Former Aussie “pirate” Jared Proudfoot is now a Kiwi landlubber. Proudfoot, known as Red, co-founded the hugely successful Pirate Life in Australia — a brewery that was sold to global giant AB InBev for $10 million in 2017. He’s now settled in Geraldine where he’s about to open a brewpub with his brewer-wife Charlotte Grant, who grew up in the south Canterbury town. Originally from Perth, Red and Pirate Life co-founder Jack Cameron worked for BrewDog in Scotland.