408: Brent McGlashen of Mac Hops is Harvesting Sunshine on the Family Farm in Motueka

New Zealand is pretty far from everything, so competing on price for commodity bittering hops was never a great strategy for the country’s small number of hops growers. Things were pretty grim in the early 2000s, when fifth-generation farmer Brent McGlashen joined his dad working on the family farm, Mac Hops, just outside the town of Motueka on the north end of South island.

But then something mysterious and wonderful happened: Craft beer took off, and creative brewers exploring new flavors and possibilities found ways to use New Zealand’s uniquely expressive hops to make beers that no one had tasted before.

In this episode, McGlashen tells the family’s story—which mirrors the bigger story of hops in New Zealand, going from struggle to global spotlight. He also talks about their move to the next chapter: gaining a deeper understanding of the science behind how flavors develop in the hops, and the factors that influence those flavors.

Through the hour, he touches on:

• breeding hops with a difference in order to stand out
• learning what brewers want through the selection process
• the impact of soil type on expression and even cone shape in hops such as Nelson Sauvin
• planting different hop varieties in different soil blocks to support their unique growth patterns
• why West Coast–style IPA brewers gravitate toward Nelson grown in sandy, stony soil, while hazy IPA brewers consistently select those grown in heavier clay soils
• how pick timing affects flavor and aroma impact
• the range of characters in popular varieties such as Nelson Sauvin, Motueka, Nectarine, Superdelic, Riwaka, Wakatu, and Rakau
• how New Zealand hops affect the shelf life of hop-forward beers

And more.

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