Kohatu Hops

I’m in the dark here. Anybody care to explain difference between northern and Southern Hemisphere hops. I know Google exists. I’d rather ask the community

 

Northern hemisphere hops are grown in the northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere hops are grown in the southern hemisphere. It's really that simple... from the outside looking in. Terroir comes in to play as well. The upshot is that, with both hemispheres producing, the possibility of more beers brewed with fresh hops is increased.

 

Besides the pendantic responses so far I would like to know the characteristics of this hop. But I am sure it is yet another fruity BS hop.

 

Ahh idk if there’s a common flavor situation. I remember the first time I had a galaxy hop I was hooked. At the time. That’s Australia? Anyways it tasted like dirt and pineapple and I loved it for that

 

Here's the link from YCH: https://www.yakimachief.com/kohatu-brand-nz.html

It does indeed seem to yet another frooty hop for the murkbombs. Even though it was released in 2011, which predates murkbombs as we know them.

 

I think that hops in general have become fruitier and more dynamic than ever before. @Urk1127 galaxy and Nelson are my favorites from down under. Most of the hops from down under have a common theme of "fruitiness" but that can range from stone fruits, to tropical fruits, to Citrus. The same can be said for American hops.

Pretty sure that word doesn't mean what you think it means...

 

To add to the answer you already got, hop growing countries all have their own breeding programs and those programs produce proprietary hops that are generally only permitted to be grown on select farms, typically in the region the hop was bred in.

So you'll never find Citra or Mosaic hops coming from Australia, and you won't find Galaxy or Nelson grown in Washington.

So while terroir likely places a significant role in hop flavor, the more important factor when people say "southern hemisphere hops" is the exclusive genetics.

 

To add to the more informative replies here, you can think of Southern Hemisphere hops as being a lot like sauvignon blanc compared between NZ/Aus and California.

NZ/Aus hops tend to have a lot more tropical and stone fruit character. This is just in general for hops bred/grown in the area but also for hops from another area grown there, e.g. Cascade. North American Cascade has a pretty straight-forward spicy, floral and citrus (mainly grapefruit) quality to it where NZ Cascade is still very similar but slightly toned down and more likely to impart tropical note (depending on its use).

To answer the question posed in the OP, Kohatu is unfortunately not an especially popular hop varietal in production brewing outside of New Zealand. Its lower relative acreage and strong similarity (depending on where it's placed in the hop schedule) to other, more popular NZ hop varietals means it gets passed over a lot by breweries in the US and abroad.

 

Looks like Australia has been exporting hops for awhile and, like US hops grown from European root stock, the hops probably had different flavor characteristics than the originals grown in the UK or Germany.

The US Brewers Association didn't keep track of Australian hops imported into the US until the 1960-1970s, and none at all came for many of those years.

In the 1990s, both NZ and Aussie hops were being exported to the US, with NZ's peak of 449k lbs in '94 and Aus.'s 697k lbs. in '91. Both tiny percentages of the Imported total during the first half of the decade, which ranged from 9 million to 22 million pounds, more than half, of course, from Germany and the Czech Republic.

Of course, those "fresh hop" beers would in all likelihood be brewed in Australia or New Zealand, since they couldn't get to the Northern Hemisphere-based breweries in time before they begin to rot. (IIRC, SN even said there was a safety issue involved, since the heat from decomposing fresh hops will cause fires, which freight airlines don't care for.)

 

I should have expanded that thought more. If the only hops available came from the northern hemisphere, we would only have new hops once a year. The older hops would not be as fresh. Southern hemisphere hops give us the opportunity to have a second influx of new product halfway through the growing year. I meant fresh from a shelf life standpoint.
And as for decomposing organic material starting fires, 100% possible. If hay is put into bales while it is still damp it can catch on fire from the heat generated by the decomposition that occurs.

 

Oh, got it - so "hops that are fresh" not "fresh hops" . The latter's always been a problematic term for me (ditto "wet hops" - they sure ain't wet).

The industry - hop ranchers, dealers, brewers - generally used to call undried hops "green hops" - though that'd probably have some complainers, too, since that is even the color of pellets.

 

Long live beerworks out of providence Rhode Island uses that hop somewhat frequently in their collaborative beer as well as in their all seeing eye series of DIPAs.

 

Do you find it imparts any unique characteristics to those beers? I gotta get back to LLB soon

 

Only come across Kohatu being used by breweries outside the US: Wiper & True, Fieldhouse, and Tempest.

That said, I do like the more delicate lime, gooseberry, honeydew, lychee, kiwi, etc. notes that NZ hops tend to bring.

 

Honestly not sure if I noticed that individual hop, it’s been a minute since I’ve had it. It’s hopped with Simcoe, citra, and kohatu And it basically a juice bomb. But I will say the all seeing eye is probably my favorite IPA from them. With that said they just dropped a new batch and I believe they gave the recipe to buttonwoods out of Cranston which was recently released as well(similar to the freaky Friday teases from trillium and friends).