Hargreaves Hill Bethie's Tripel & Kenneth, Son Of Zenith 2020

Style
Belgian Tripel & Double IPA
ABV
8.6% & 8.2%

If you've grown up in the contemporary craft beer world, especially if you've got into beer over the past couple of years, hearing that a beer is hoppy will probably have you thinking of explosions of tropical fruit salads and opaque, golden-yellow pours. But highly hopped beers predate today's wanton extravagance, just in different ways and alternate expressions.

Head to Poperinge, Belgium's main hop-growing region, for example, and you'll be able to lay your hands on some hoppy Belgian ales; but instead of fruit bombs, you're more likely to be met with something dry, spicy and bitter, with those old school hop varieties often contributing less on the fruit front than the yeasts. That appears to be the case with Bethie's Tripel, a strong Belgian-inspired ale brewed in tribute to Hargreaves Hill co-founder Beth Walkenhorst. Pale and spicy with characteristics that take in white pepper, a drying herbaceousness, a minerality and a slaty riesling like vinousness alongside the Belgian esters, it's a reminder that "hoppy" has meant, and still can mean, more than hazy fruit bomb.

Of a more contemporary hop forward nature is Hargreaves' returning double IPA. Here, the caramel-giving specialty malts have been stripped back in 2020's Kenneth, Son Of Zenith, leaving you with a very different beast to past iterations: paler, much leaner, and a tighter expression of what a West Coast IPA can be. Like the Tripel, it's in part reminiscent of white wine, as if there were Kiwi hops in the mix (there aren't – it's all US varieties Amarillo, Azzaca, Belma and Centennial), with little in the way of sweetness, a herbal edge to the pithy, citrusy hops, some booze, and a finish that's dry more than bitter.

James Smith

Published December 12, 2020

Name
Hargreaves Hill
Address

Factory 60
64-86 Beresford Road
Lilydale 3140

Phone
(03) 9730 1905
Black Bad Boy Bao 2024 B
Pickled OnMarket

More from Hargreaves Hill

Hargreaves Hill Strawberry & Watermelon Sour
Sour
5.0%
Hargreaves Hill Whirlpool Pilsner & Celestial Fuzz Fruited IIPA
Hoppy Pilsner & Fruited IIPA
5.5% & 8.0%
Hargreaves Hill 0 IBU & 100 IBU IPAs
NEIPA & San Diego WCIPA ft Terpenes
Both 7.0%
Hargreaves Hill The Phoenix '23 & Double ESB
Imperial Red Ale & Double ESB
9.6% & 8.0%
Hargreaves Hill Superdelic Fragilistic Expialid Oatish & Naughty
Oat Cream IPA & Barrel-Aged Schwarzbier
7.6% & 6.0%
Hargreaves Hill Team World DIPA & R.I.S. 2022
Hazy Double IPA & Russian Imperial Stout
8.5% & 11.2%
Hargreaves Hill Team America, Australia & New Zealand IPAs
Hazy IPAs
All 6.7%
Hargreaves Hill Fruit Ninja & Kenneth Son Of Zenith '23
Smoothie Sour & Imperial IPA
6.0% & 8.5%
Hargreaves Hill Sunshine and Roller Skates California IPA
California IPA
7.2%
Hargreaves Hill 18th Birthday Packs
Various styles as indicated
5.2% & 4.9% & 11.5% & 10.0%
Hargreaves Hill Red Vienna Lager & Single Origin Coffee Stout
Vienna Lager & Coffee Stout
5.0% & 6.2%
Hargreaves Hill Barrel-Aged Double ESB & Creaming Soda Stout
Barrel-Aged Double ESB & Sweet Stout
9.0% & 6.0%
Hargreaves Hill R.I.S. 2021
Imperial Stout
11.2%
Hargreaves Hill Phoenix 2022
Imperial Red Ale
9.6%
Hargreaves Hill Paper Hands & Diamond Hands
West Coast & Hazy Double IPAs
Both 7.7%
Hargreaves Hill Guava & Strawberry Sour & Margarita Gose '22
Fruit Sours
5.0% & 4.0%
Hargreaves Hill Uninterrupted Prosperity NEIPA
NEIPA
7.2%
Hargreaves Hill & Four Pillars Gin Barrel Gose 2021
Gin Barrel Aged Gose
5.0%
Hargreaves Hill Knock Off Lager & Pursuit 10.2
Lager & Triple IPA with Fruit
4.0% & 10.0%
Hargreaves Hill Pursuit Of Hoppiness No.10: Triple Hazy
Hazy IIIPA
10.0%