Two of NZ Hops Ltd’s experimental hops are in advanced trials this season and they couldn’t have asked for a better start.

Both NZH-106 and NZH-109 have been selected for advanced growing trials so we’ll see more of those hops in our beers later this year.

Andrew Sutherland of Oast House Hops said winter and spring conditions in the Tasman area had been almost ideal for the newcomers.

“They’re two very promising varieties that have got to what we call pre-commercial planting, which is less than one hectare on a range of farms across the growing region to test their agronomic performance.

“They’ve come through the Bract Brewing Programme and had a lot of good feedback so NZ Hops Ltd is taking the next step with those two varieties — testing them on a range of farms on different soil types in Tapawera, Motueka, Moutere and Wakefield to see their performance.”

They couldn’t have asked for a better start with another great harvest on offer.

The 2024 harvest impressed brewers and drinkers alike with the quality of the hops, notably Nelson Sauvin, and Sutherland said it’s tracking nicely for a similar harvest quality in 2025.

With one proviso.

“Well, it’s farming,” he says, knowing from experience that you can’t get ahead of yourself or the weather.

“What you’re often doing is dealing with, or reacting to, things you don’t have control over, particularly weather — whether that’s excessively wet or excessively dry.

“But we haven’t had the problem with a wet spring limiting our ability to get our spring tasks done, specifically hop-training. So things are tracking along really nicely. We’ve got even plant growth, We’ve got the plants on the twine when we wanted to and we haven’t had to stand down for extended rainy periods.”

Before that the winter was almost ideal.

“In winter we like to see some nice frost, some nice chilling. It helps to put the hops into a deep dormancy. The reason that’s good is that when we get to springtime and we get some warm temperatures, that wakes them up and gets them growing in a nice uniform way.

“And then in spring we had relatively mild temperatures without any late frosts. The advantage of that is that it doesn’t stop the plant growing. So, it woke up and it didn’t have anything that checked it.

“So yeah, across the board everything’s in a very nice place because of that.”

It’s all been so ideal that right now the plants are tracking “in advance of a normal year”.

The dry spring and quick start to summer means plenty of irrigation is needed to stop the plants bolting but Sutherland says it’s better to have that problem than too much rain.

“That is something we can control a little bit better than excess rain. The general commentary is that this spring has presented us with a really nice set of conditions, nice warmth, nice growth rate and we’ve been able to irrigate in a timely fashion to give the plants what they need.

“So, yeah, it’s a pretty sweet spot just at the moment.”