Hāpi Festival and Symposium — Andrew Bell of The Bruery

Garage Project’s Hāpi Festival and Symposium was held earlier this year in the lead-up to New Zealand’s hop harvest.

The symposium and festival form the public-facing side of a hop-breeding initiative Garage Project has undertaken with New Zealand’s Freestyle Farms, and with backing from the country’s Ministry for Primary Industries. Over the course of a day in Wellington’s famous Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, speakers such as Alexandra Nowell from Three Weavers Brewing Company, Matt Brynildson from Firestone Walker Brewing Company, and Paul Jones from Cloudwater Brew Co. gave talks with a focus on hops. Good Beer Hunting was there to capture a slice of the discussion.  

Afterwards, the invited breweries poured for a small festival of 1,000 people. It was a surreal situation: seeing world-renowned breweries like Trillium, Other Half, Hill Farmstead. Tired Hands and Cellarmaker serving beer in New Zealand’s national museum. 

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What’s the correct rate for dry hopping with graham crackers? We learn that in part three of our Hāpi Festival and Symposium podcast series. 

The Bruery, from Placentia, California is not a brewery that I had ever associated with hop-forward beers, so I was curious to know why they were at a hop symposium. It turns out, however, that The Bruery recently launched a side project focused on hoppy beers called Offshoot Beer Co., and its innovation manager Andrew Bell was on hand to tell us all about it. 

As it is The Bruery, we also got to talking about Imperial Stouts. After our conversation, I tasted Share This: Mole Imperial Stout—if I’m honest, it may have been one of the best beers I tried all day. Listen in.