Appellation Beer has named 3 contenders for rookie hop of the year in 2021. They are pitting Talus™ from the US against Nectaron® from New Zealand and our own Eclipse® from Australia. This means we can supply our customers with two of the three next big things in brewing.
Talus™, formerly known as HBC 438, was created by the Hop Breeding Company (HBC) that created Sabro®, Mosaic® and Citra®. The daughter of Sabro® and open pollination, Talus™ delivers a delicious array of aromas including pink grapefruit, citrus rind, dried rose, pine resin, tropical fruit and sage. It’s very likely beer drinkers will see plenty of single hop IPAs featuring Talus™ next year, but it also plays well with others in styles such as lagers, pale ales and IPAs. The name is a nod to the talus slopes in the Yakima Valley. HBC is a partnership between Yakima Chief Ranches and HAAS. As the regional representative of HAAS we have crop 2019 Talus™ available now, with crop 2020 landing on our shores very soon.
Eclipse®, formerly known as HPA-016, was created by our own hop breeding program in Australia. It’s bursting with sweet mandarin, zesty citrus peel and fresh pine needles, and has already shown it stands up in a range of beer styles including XPAs, Pilsners, Wits, Dark Ales, Saisons, IPAs and NEIPAs. The name is a double entendre, with a celestial reference to its sister Galaxy® as well as a flavour reference to its big, bold impact in beer. Ash Hazell, Head of Brewing at Colonial Brewing Co, used Eclipse® back when it was still an experimental hop. He says “the best beer I ever brewed was Pioneer. It was a 7.5% IPA using a foolish amount of [Eclipse®] in the hop-back and dry-hopping. The full spectrum of hop character we extracted was unreal.” Crop 2020 Eclipse® is currently only available to Australian brewers in commercial quantities, but it will start to reach the rest of the world from crop 2021.
Contact your local sales rep to secure your supply of Talus™ or Eclipse® today.
