The third Preston Valley Hops harvest, on their land 2.5 hours south of Perth, presented a rare opportunity for the team at King Road Brewing. Thanks to an introduction via a family connection, the brewers completed their hop selection session a week prior to picking, settling on Cascade, Chinook and Victoria – the latter a rarely seen variety kept alive by homebrewers which shares the same mother as Galaxy.
Freshly picked in the morning, the bespoke haul was immediately driven to King Road to be added to the boil at lunchtime – as fresh as it gets. While some will assume the impact of such effort to be bold and resinous, head brewer Steve Wearing is quick to point out that, although he used about eight times the amount of wet hops as he would pelletised flowers within a normal brew, the expression is far more delicate.
On a light caramel malt base, subtle citrus and pine present, reminiscent of style icon Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, with compact bitterness, the sum of which feels almost like a distant echo from a simpler time in the beer world.
Guy Southern
Published March 12, 2020 2020-03-12 00:00:00
