First ever line of New Zealand Hop Oil Extracts hits the market
NZ Hops Ltd. And Totally Natural Solutions Officially Release HopInspiration® Range
Fresh off the bine New Zealand hop news dropped ahead of the Craft Brewers Conference on a new line of hop oils from NZ Hops Ltd., in partnership with Totally Natural Solutions. These hop extracts are billed as the first ever New Zealand hop oils that harness the desireable characters of southern hemisphere grown varieties that have become an influential part of the modern American craft beer flavorscape. New Zealand hops have been all over the news lately with the quickly growing demand for Nectaron hops and new availability for proprietary varieties.
The HopInspiration line of oils captures the essences of Nectaron®, Kohatu®, Moutere™, Rakau™, Waimea™, Wai-iti™, and Taiheke®. This weeks Craft Brewers Conference in Minneapolis serves as their official debut, although the HopBurst oil specifically showing off Nectaron was available earlier.
More from a press release:
Since the beginning of hops’ usage in beer, advances in technology have been sought after for greater quality and efficiency. Derived from whole cone hops, these oils offer a sustainable, economical replacement for pellets in the post-fermentation stage of a brew.
Hop Oils Offer Multiple Benefits
With these highly concentrated hop oils, brewers are able to add all the aroma and flavor of traditional hop cones and pellets with added flexibility and consistency. Using the oils allows for reproducible beers, meaning consumers will happily detect the same flavors and aromas in each batch. In keeping with the commitment to quality, these oils do not use any chemicals, solvents, or pesticide-ridden hops.
Hop oils also offer considerable savings on time and money. They not only require much smaller amounts of product, they use considerably less storage space. Oils also contain lower levels of staling aldehydes, allowing for longer and better stability, even against light, and have an even longer shelf life for unopened packages when properly stored.
Dry-Hopping
What makes dry-hopping with oils a much more viable option than plant material? For one, the oils derived from hops are more likely to be retained during the dry-hopping process than when pellets are used.
The oil myrcene provides an impactful example. Even though it makes up the highest percentage of the oils found in hops, traditional hopping methods can leave the majority of these oils to waste away in spent hops, with as little as <1% finding its way into the beer.
As Scott Janish, author of The New IPA: Scientific Guide to Hop Aroma and Flavor and co-founder of Sapwood Cellars in Columbia, MD, puts it in his white paper on post-fermentation hop oils, “Now, I don’t want to brag, but I sent a beer (to a renowned U.S. hop chemist) to test it for various compounds… including myrcene. I had over 2.5 times more myrcene than the highest commercial beer tested in (a previous study conducted by the chemist).”
Besides bragging rights, this increases potential efficiency astronomically -- and not just in the extraction of oils. Using oils as a dry hop replacement can reduce beer loss, which can make for significant savings as brews with high hop additions can see loss upwards of 20-30%, even before any potential yeast-derived losses. And, as ease and convenience go, unlike many hopping methods, with oils there’s no need for expensive equipment or laborious clean up.
Nectaron hop oil from the HopBurst line
Brand Options
The HopInspiration® line comprises three types of products: HopBurst®, HopShot®, and HopSensation®.
The appropriately named HopBurst®, consisting of single-variety hops oils, gives a burst of dry hop aroma for extremely hoppy beers. HopShot®,, is made of customizable hop oil fractions and can be used as enhancement of whirlpool-derived aromas and flavors or as a late hop replacement. HopShot® oils can lend an array of notes from woody to spicy, floral or citrus. HopSensation® oils are specific blends that allow for balance and give a dry hop flavor and aroma.
There are now seven varieties of NZ Hops Ltd. hop oil sources: Nectaron®, Kohatu®, Moutere™, Rakau™, Waimea™, Wai-iti™, and Taiheke®.
Nectaron® gushes with pineapple and passionfruit and brings a welcome addition to any modern beer style. Kohatu® offers notes of fruity aroma with significant bitterness and is ideal for single hop additions in styles such as lagers, pale ales, and IPAs. Moutere™ works best as a late addition and leads to a soft mouthfeel. With its high oil content, it lends a quality of resin to lagers, pilsners, pale ales, and IPA/NEIPAs. Rakau™ is wonderful for light styles, such as lagers and pale ales, allowing a large fruity character to play off a bitter background while also standing up to darker styles such as porters and stouts. Waimea™ combines notes of fresh citrus with bitterness for pale ales and IPA/NEIPAs. Wai-iti™ and Taiheke® are perfect for New World styles, with Wai-iti™’s peachy and apricot stone fruit and Taiheke®’s grapefruit and lime notes.
Curious Minds Want To Know
These essential oils are made using production techniques that include cold-press, steam distillation, supercritical CO2 extraction, and solvent extraction. The oils are highly condensed as a result and do not require a large dosage for most brews.
Generally, recommended dosing for lager/pale/lighter beer styles calls for starting at 10-20 g/hL and increasing as desired. For IPAs and hoppy styles, dose at 30-40 g/hL. Oils should be added post-fermentation and allowed a blending time of 2-4 hours.
Oils boast the added clean benefits of being free of nitrates, metals and pesticide residues. They are also vegan- and vegetarian-friendly.
Award-Winning Partnership
TNS has just been awarded the UK’s prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise – International Trade in recognition of the British company’s “outstanding short-term growth” in overseas sales over the last three years. Following an export strategy that focused on beverage markets in the United States, Europe and South East Asia, TNS has seen its overseas sales grow by 89 per cent since 2019 and recently celebrated a successful year of growth, where turnover increased by 44 per cent – from £2.7 million ($3.4 million) in 2020 to £3.9 million ($5 million) in 2021. TNS currently provides its natural hop oil solutions to more than 650 breweries worldwide.
The UK-wide Queen’s Award for Enterprise is regarded as one of the most prestigious business awards in the world. Its International Trade award is given to businesses that demonstrate how they are excelling in overseas marketplaces through clear delivery of products while identifying new markets and upholding social, economic, and environmental best practices.
About NZ Hops Ltd.:
NZ Hops Ltd. is a co-operative of Master Growers whose legend and cultivars have been crafted for over 150 years with creativity, sustainability and passion. The co-op’s 25 farms, many of which are intergenerational family owned, dedicate themselves to the cultivation of hops in the famed growing region of Nelson Tasman, on the upper South Island of New Zealand. Dating back to the 1950s, NZ Hops Ltd. boasts growers whose ancestors have planted and harvested hops for five generations, beginning in the 1840s. Though it’s rooted in tradition, NZ Hops Ltd. is committed to both its position as leader in innovation and its mission to supply the world’s most revered hops domestically and to its 17 international markets. For more information, please visit https://nzhops.co.nz. To inquire about purchasing hops in North America, please contact North American Sales Director Devin Biondi at devin@nzhops.co.nz or 206-612-6885.
About Totally Natural Solutions:
Totally Natural Solutions are specialists in the extraction of natural hop oils for aromas, flavors and function. The HopInspiration® range offers brewers natural hop extracts for late and dry hopping to complement or replace the use of hop cones and pellets. Bittering extracts and specialist natural botanical extracts for brewing applications are also available. Their hop products ensure flavor consistency and deliver intense, hoppy aroma in a convenient and reproducible way, improving efficiency and giving cost savings. Made using the highest quality hop pellets, produced without the use of solvents or addition of flavor-boosting chemicals, they offer a totally natural solution for late and dry hop additions.These volatile oils are essential in providing the recognisable characteristics of every beer. Our global patented methods ensure all flavor and aroma-rich oils are preserved.Totally Natural Solutions offers the right solutions for Homebrew, Craft and Industrial Brewers. Situated in Kent, UK, distributed globally.