NZ Rhapzody. Photo: Supplied / Bioeconomy Science Institute

Along the banks of the Wangapeka River in Tasman, a new hop variety named after the grower's love of beer and music is being commercially released after more than a decade of research and development.

The Bioeconomy Science Institute and the country's biggest hop grower, Clayton Hops, have spent the last five years getting the new variety, NZ Rhapzody, ready for commercial use.

Glen Clayton runs Clayton Hops with his two brothers. He said they planted around 120 plants in a trial block, several years ago as part of a joint initiative called the Clayton Innovation Project.

Glen Clayton of Clayton Hops. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee

The Rhapzody variety has been trialled by brewers in China, Canada and Australia and was getting good reviews.

"We've put the whole different array of beer styles from lagers to pilsners through to big IPAs and it has been through a rigorous set of testing there and it has really come up trumps, it has picked out really well and in our view has outperformed some of the other NZ grown hops."

"Brewers are saying that it really brings something quite different than what they are used to in a NZ hop, but still that massive tropical mango, pineapple, even stonefruit and pink grapefruit."

Clayton said the new variety had a good yield and was late to harvest, and they had since planted more Rhapzody across each of their four farms.

"Agronomically it means we can leave these until late and we can harvest all our other varieties beforehand, which is really important when you got have a big piece of infrastructure that does the processing so it's really important to have hops that fit outside existing harvest windows.

An aerial view of Clayton Hops farm in Tasman. Photo: Supplied / Bioeconomy Science Institute

The name Rhapzody was coined by Brian Clayton and came from the team's shared love of music and beer.

"We expect to get meaningful volume into the market over the next couple of years and current demand suggests there's appetite and room for that."

Bioeconomy Science Institute hop breeder Kerry Templeton, who worked from the Motueka research centre, said the new variety was first created in 2014 and had shown promise from around 2019.

"We have a little pilot brewery and do small two or three litre batches and every time it's been through the brewery, it produced stunning beer.

"It really takes five or six years to even get to the point where you go, oh that hop has got some potential, then once you have that, you get it out into a grower trial and you have another five years getting real data in the location where it is going to be grown."

Bioeconomy Science Institute hop breeder Kerry Templeton has spent the last five years working on the development of new hop variety NZ Rhapzody. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee

He said brewers in the craft beer industry were always on the lookout for new and different hop varieties and breeders aimed to replace some of the lower value hops at certain points during the harvest window with higher value hops that had different flavours.

"Hop breeding is really culling hops, you start out with thousands and you end up with one or two every five years, it has got to yield well and it has got to have good flavour.

"Growers are going to have to want to grow it and brewers are going to have to want to brew with it."

Clayton Hops chief executive Paul Teen said the company was affected by the Tasman floods last year, with the second flood causing the most damage and leaving about 25 hectares under water.

"It can have an impact on yield with all the sediment that comes in, so while it's good for them long term it does have an impact on the season."

Paul Teen. Photo: Supplied / Bioeconomy Science Institute

He said Rhapzody was one of five varieties being trialled by the company, and the first to go commercial.

"Last year it was the last hop we picked and it was vibrant green, we had customers here from Massachusetts over here visiting and when they picked it up off the ground and rubbed it they said it was hands down the best hop they'd had in New Zealand."

He said staff were now getting ready for this year's harvest, which included about 10 hectares of Rhapzody.

Teen said they were hoping for another few weeks of fine weather, to allow the oils to develop in the hop cones before harvest got underway.

Harvesting time at Clayton Hops. Photo: Supplied / Bioeconomy Science Institute

"We try and pick our hops at their ultimate aroma, testing is done on them for the analytics but on the day of each harvest we come in and rub the cones as a team and decide which one we are going to pick next.

"You can't do anything by looking at them, there's the dryness, the sound, how they fall apart in your hand and how that aroma translates."

Rhapzody joins almost 20 other New Zealand hop varieties that are grown almost exclusively at the top of the South Island and make up around one percent of the global hop market.

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