As the popularity of New World hop varieties has grown, there has been less love around for the Old World. But, just as Australia's main grower, Hop Products Australia, has changed direction in recent years to wind down production of Pride of Ringwood and its ilk in favour of new stars such as Galaxy, Ella and Vic Secret, so have breeders in Europe. Recent times have seen the traditional hop growing regions of Germany endeavouring to create flamboyant and expressive aroma and flavour hops to rival the varieties offered by the US, New Zealand and Australia. So the team at Feral figured they should find out what these new German varieties were all about. They laid their hands on high oil varieties of Polaris, Mandarina Bavaria, Saphire and Herkules and use them to create this German IPA, a beer they say is bursting with fresh stone fruit, mandarin and grassy aromas, is chock-full of spicy, resinous hops, and rounded out by a solid whack of bitterness. As for the name, it brings back childhood trips around Germany giggling every time we'd pass a turn off on the autobahn and spy the words "Ausfahrt". But just as that only meant "Exit", Hopfen Fahrt means little more than "Hop Trip". Still, drink enough of it and who knows what other meanings might present themselvesâ?¦
Published March 20, 2014 2014-03-20 00:00:00
