New NZ hops

[Mark]

Does anyone know anything about Kohatu and Wai-iti hops being advertised on craftbrewer? They look intriguing and there isn't anything about them on NZ hops site.

[Mike Neilson]

Yeah couple of trial hops that have made the Big time, brewed with kohatu twice and have been quite impressed but am yet to brew wit Wai iti will probably do it next weekend, Kohatu for me is Lime and a touch of tropical fruit and is a little creamy like lemon or lime curd.

[Richard Jack]

How does one go about acquiring said hops?

[Reviled]

Work at a brewery and be chummy with NZ hops? lol

 

You could try ringing Doreen and asking her ever so nicely... Might work?

[Mike Neilson]

Im pretty sure Jo will have some in the next week or so.

[Reviled]

"Lime and a touch of tropical fruit and is a little creamy"

 

Good god that sounds delicious!! Sorta sucks that craftbrewer get some before the NZ market is made aware of it - in fact, thats pretty shit of NZ hops IMO - I mean, I know craftbrewer buys a sh*t load, but what about us?? lol

[Mike Neilson]

Wai it sounds better I reacon!! Going to brew a Kohatu Wai iti Double IPA

[denimglen]

Hopefully they're better than Rakau...which also sounded good.

[Kieran Haslett-Moore]

I was involved in a brew that used Wai Iti , it got a nice peppery spicy character.

[Tilt]

Picking this topic up again - has anyone had a chance to suss these two hops out some more and add to the collective wisdom? 

Is there any consensus on when and how they are best used? 

[bart]

I brewed two brews for the purposes of trying these hops out - one was hopped with 100% Kohatu and the other with 100% Wai-iti, with the same grain bill for both. The grain bill was more or less a simple pale ale recipe, going light on the crystal though and instead substituting in some brown malt to avoid an over sweet brew. I hopped them both to a level of 32 IBU, with 35g each of flavour and aroma hops and 20g of dry hops for the 20 litre brews, with different levels of bittering hops to bring the brews to 32 IBU.

 

Both brews tasted pretty damn good. I am impressed with these hops.

 

Kohatu, to me, seems like a move back towards the UK style hops like Fuggle or Golding... It has that subtle but well rounded earthyness to it but still retaining a bit of that signature NZ style that NZ Hops seem to have been developing. i.e. it's a bit fruiter and perhaps with a bit more of a citrus hint compared to the UK hops. I think it would be great if attempting to make british style ales but wanting a bit more of an interesting flavour to them without swinging all the way to American hops or some of the punchier NZ varieties.

 

Wai-iti has an EXCELLENT flavour. This brew got rave reviews from everyone who tried it. The flavour is more fruity than the Kohatu, with a distinct passionfruit character. Again some of those signature NZ flavours come through as well, like a toned down Riwaka flavour. I think that the low alpha content of this hops combined with the rest of its unique biochemical profile means it has an extremely smooth bittering quality. I think this was one reason it was popular with females equally (or even more so) as much as with guys... I would say Wai-iti is very well suited to summer ale / golden ale type brews. Would also be great in a hoppy pale ale and other styles, but if I was wanting to brew a more classical IPA or something with it, you'd definitely want to include some other hops with a bit more 'balls' to them, just to give it a bit of bite otherwise the flavour will probably be too smooth. I think that Riwaka would be a good companion for it in a hoppy pale ale or if you wanted to take it even further balancing the softness of Wai-iti, go for something like Rakau perhaps. Up to you. But yeah overall Wai-iti was my favourite of the two. The flavour that comes through was quite different to how the hop pellets themselves smell, so give it a go in a brew and see what happens!

[Michael van Wijk]

Hey Bart, what do you think Pacific Jade woudl be like with Wai-iti?

[Richard Jack]

I've heard the term "sweaty pineapple pants" getting bandied around about kohatu somewhere recently :)