Hey – we like brewing simple beers to learn more about hop varieties. We brewed a Single Malt and Single Hop (SMaSH) beer with Taiheke hops from New Zealand. As we do, we tasted it and talked about it on camera. Here’s our video on Taiheke hops!

Our Taiheke SMaSH Thoughts

So, I brewed this beer with the notion that this variety shared a lineage with Cascade hops. I didn’t know if the same qualities of Cascade were going to make it into this beer since it is grown in another part of the world. Mike started off by saying that there wasn’t a lot of strong flavors or aromas in this beer. When he elaborated, he stated there was a black plum and/or blackberry quality.  He also got a sulfur note that he thought it came from the hop. He said the fruit quality was there – a non-distinct stone fruit – maybe peach! Maybe that where the sulfur was coming from.

He said there was some tropical fruit notes and said it was a little like coconut.  Then, he thought it was a cacao nibs since it was an earthly aroma and flavor. 

Now the commercial descriptors – bright fruit flavors of grapefruit, lime, and sweet fruit. I think Mike gave more detail but we can put that all down under “sweet fruit”.

We liked this hop – we think Taiheke could be a variety on which you build your hop profile for your next awesome beer.