Alex and Vince had a good time mashing in.

There’s a guest brewer in the house today, and I don’t think we could have picked a better brew day for him to join. Vincent Hine, former brewer at Hallertau Brewbar, a 12 hectoliter (~10 bbl) brewpub in Auckland New Zealand joined Alex on the brew deck.

We first met Vince last November at a local beer festival here in San Francisco, and have been hatching plans to have him in for a brew day ever since. So, when Vince showed up this Saturday for the Aroma Coma and Aroma Prieta release, one of those little Eureka lightbulbs popped up over our heads… bring  him in for the next Aroma Prieta brew.

Yes, that’s correct. More of our newest seasonal, Aroma Prieta double-dry-hopped IPA with New Zealand hops is hitting the tanks today.

We know what you’re thinking…  ”That’s Awesome! But why didn’t you just brew more in the first place?”

There’s a pretty fascinating answer for that, but the short version is: We didn’t get all of our New Zealand hops in time for the first brew. Due to the growing popularity of New Zealand’s hop varieties and their long harvest season, all the hops we planned to use didn’t quite make it to San Leandro in time for the first brew of Prieta.

According to Vince, their particular aromas and flavors of tropical fruit, lemon, citrus, and gooseberries have caught the attention of brewers both domestically, where they have traditionally relied more on Noble and English varieties, as well as in American craft breweries.

“From what I’ve seen of the hop fields, it’s still a very small production, but expanding. I don’t know if they are expanding at the rate of popularity,” Vince explained.

Still, despite initial setbacks, we are currently brewing up more Aroma Prieta today, which according to our in-house expert of the day, is “balanced with nice Motueka (lemon, citrus) and Nelson Sauvin (lemon, gooseberries, and sometimes green bell pepper) character.”

Thanks Vince for hanging out, helping us with the brew, and giving us some first hand insight into New Zealand hops.

For those still seeking Prieta, we currently have a few cases of bottles left here at the Barrel House, and the next batch should be available in a couple of weeks, though we’ve not decided how much will become bottles and how much will be draft. In the meantime, have an Aroma Coma. Cheers.