We’ve been delving into the wild world of hops of late and trying to focus on individual strains through single hop beers. However, let’s face it, hops are typically served in a fruit salad style, layered on top of each other in an attempt to maximise complexity and balance bitterness versus flavour. In fact, there are a few key hops that basically come bundled together, and when they do, they drive styles and even offer a glimpse of the notion of terroir (oh no - I’ve gone and mentioned the T word again!).I’m thinking of the English ale hops, the...

Your homework last week was to investigate the Citra hop, courtesy of some single hopped beers that focus on this well known variety. How did you go? Can you now spot Citra’s profile with your eyes shut and your hands tied behind your back (I’ve spilled a few beers trying this)? Great! If not, just keep plugging away.Today let’s take a look at Mosaic - another massively popular hop that pops up all over the place.Mosaic is a newish hop which was bred in 2012 as the love child of Simcoe and Nugget. One of the main reasons for its...

What’s the most important thing about the beer you drink? Is it the malt, the water or the hops? I’m guessing a fair few of you will be leaning towards the word hops because, at the end of the day, the world of beer is currently pretty damn hop obsessed. And perhaps rightly so.What’s nice about this current fascination, is that we are seeing more and more transparency surrounding the hops used in many of the beers we love. They pop up incorporated in beer names and are fully featured in tasting notes. We’re becoming well versed in what different...

Well, I guess if there was ever a time to buy an expensive beer - it’s Christmas - so with the silly season in full swing, I thought it might be fun to look at some of the top tier offerings currently at Beer Cellar.I’ll be honest, I don't often splurge on beer - and it’s probably fair to say that with a decent search around the $15 mark, you can find some great beer drinking - especially if you look to Belgium. So when should you splash out on a beer and how much should you spend?How long is...

We riffed on the idea of the ebb and flow of beer styles around the world in last week’s blog and it got me pondering on some of the notions of how styles are actually defined - and what shape they will take going forward. Of course, once again, the IPA provides the perfect case study.You know the history of the IPA, so I won’t dwell on it, except to say that it appeared in the 1830s in England as a heavily hopped higher ABV style. It gradually became weaker and less popular through the decades until by the 1960s...