Welcome to this BreweryPro Podcast with Owen Johnston from Hop Products Australia.
The annual hop harvest has become a mainstay on the hop calendar, and the feast of the senses that the event affords is one of the most evocative experiences in brewing.
With the current travel restrictions, the farm tour and in-person socialisation can’t take place this year, but the important information sharing, networking and brewer-to-grower communication is also a big feature of the harvest, and that will be taking place virtually.
Here, Owen talks us through what is scheduled and how it will all take place. We also look ahead to how harvest 2021 is shaping up agriculturally and also follow up on the recent release of Eclipse.
You can see the full program below with registration details on the HPA website.
| DATE | TIME (AEDT) | SESSION | DESCRIPTION |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 1/3 | 8.00 AM | Welcome | Welcome to our virtual hop harvest. We’re excited to offer brewers and beer lovers around the world an opportunity to get to know our business and the team behind our hops. |
| Wed 3/3 | 8.00 AM | Meet Eclipse® | We’re proud to introduce our newest proprietary hop to the brewing world. Eclipse®, formerly known as experimental variety HPA-016, is bursting with sweet mandarin, zesty citrus peel and fresh pine needles. |
| Fri 5/3 | 8.00 AM | Breeding Facility Tour | Go behind the scenes to see what it takes for a hop to climb the ranks from an experimental variety to a commercial variety. |
| Mon 8/3 | 8.00 AM | Discover Tasmania | There’s a wild little island at the end of the world where people come to leave the chaos of city life behind. It’s worth taking the time to see what else our Tasmanian growing region has to offer. |
| Wed 10/3 | 8.00 AM | Maximising Fruity Hop Flavours in Beer | Fruit-forward styles have taken the modern beer world by storm. Both hop growers and brewers can work to maximise fruity flavours and aromas in beer by better understanding several key classes of hop compounds and how they behave through the brewing process. |
| Fri 12/3 | 8.00 AM | Brewers around the world backing hops from Australia | We chat to legendary brewers around the world about their favourite hops, innovative brewing techniques, new product development and more. |
| Mon 15/3 | 8.00 AM | Bushy Park Estates Farm Tour | Bushy Park Estates is a pretty spectacular spot that few brewers get to see. This is your chance to learn a bit of hop history, have a look around the farm, and meet the team behind our crop before we check in with the farm managers for a live harvest update. |
| Wed 17/3 | 8.00 AM | Quality Assurance | We take pride in our hops, and the beers our customers create with them. That’s why we have a no-nonsense Quality Management System in place that is ISO 9001:2015 and HACCP certified. Discover what our certifications mean, and the steps we take to guarantee quality in the final package. |
| Fri 19/3 | 8.00 AM | Beer Chat | Our Australian and international sales team are live for a casual chat about hops. We’ll pose a series of questions before breaking into smaller groups so you can discuss, raise your own questions, connect with fellow brewers, or simply catch up with new and old friends around the world. |
| Mon 22/3 | 8.00 AM | Brewing with Green Hops | The opportunity to brew with green hops only comes around once a year. Follow the crew from Hobart Brewing Company as they collect whole, wet cones from the farm and hurry them back to the brewery in pursuit of fresh, vibrant flavours and aromas characteristic of green hop beers. They’ll also join us live to discuss the challenges of brewing with green hops and how they overcome them. |
| Wed 24/3 | 8.00 AM | See High Country Victoria | Not far from Melbourne, there’s a place where simple pleasures bubble to the surface. It’s worth taking the time to see what else our Victorian growing region has to offer. |
| Fri 26/3 | 8.00 AM | Sustainability Initiatives | Our farms are more than fields and hops. They are our communities, customers and employees future. We seriously consider the economic, environmental and social impact of every decision we make, and are taking shared responsibility for a better world by setting meaningful sustainability targets. |
| Mon 29/3 | 8.00 AM | Forward Contracting | Forward contracts are a critical part of securing your future hop supply and protecting your brewery from market volatility. We consider the importance of forward contracts from the perspective of a hop grower and a brewer, as well as sharing some techniques you can use to forward contract responsibly. |
| Wed 31/3 | 8.00 AM | Thank You | Thank you for tuning in to our virtual hop harvest. We hope it leaves you feeling like you know us, our hops, our farms and our processes a little better. |