Humlehøsting hos Bosnar for Wet Hop Ale

Onsdag morgen dro Rune og Tore til Slovenia for å være med på humpleplukking på Bosnarfamiliens gård nær Celje. Denne humlen blir (i stedet for å bli tørket) lastet i kjølebiler og kjørt til bryggeriet vårt så hurtig som mulig. Målet er å brygge norges første øl laget med fersk humle- Wet Hop Ale!

«Torsdag var det omvisning med Blaz på ulike humleåkere med "voksenopplæring" i humledyrking. På ettermiddagen og kvelden ble det tid til en tur til Ljubljana, før vi ble kjørt hjem til Blaz for kveldsmat Solvenian style. Det var en enorm gjestfrihet vi ble vist – med mye tradisjonell og hjemmelaget mat.
Fredag startet før 07.00 og humlehøstingen var i gang da vi kom til humleåkerne. Det var rundt ti personer involvert i ulike oppgaver og alt var pakket ferdig i 45 kasser til kl 16:00. 
Da reiste humlen i en Polsk registrert kjølebil på vei til Nøgne Ø.
Alle som reiser i området er invitert til å komme innom dem, noe både Rune og jeg vil anbefale!»

Wednesday morning Rune and Tore went to Slovenia to attend harvesting hops at Bosnar family farm near Celje. This hops is (instead of being dried) loaded into refrigerated trucks and driven to our brewery as quickly as possible. The goal is to brew Norway's first beer made ​​with fresh hops- Wet Hop Ale!

"Thursday we had a nice tour with Blaz on different hops fields and got an insight in hops cultivation. In the afternoon it was time for a trip to Ljubljana, before we were driven home to Blaz for supper Slovenian style. It was a tremendous hospitality we were shown - with a lot of traditional and home made food.

Friday started before 07:00 and hops harvesting was underway when we got to the field. There were about ten people involved in different tasks and everything was packed ready in 45 boxes to 16:00. Thereupon the hops hit the road in a truck headed for Nøgne Ø. 

Anyone traveling in the area are invited to stop by them, both Rune and I would highly recommend! "

 

Hop-heads unite: Global Pale Ale in stores now!

Nøgne Ø’s Global Pale Ale is available in a supermarket near you as of right now!

Supermarket?! Yep, your eyes do not deceive you. Our GPA has only 4.5% alcohol and is therefore available in stores like Meny, Kiwi, Spar, Ultra and Joker. Coop, ICA, Rimi and the rest are joining the party in July. If you cannot find it in your local branch, ask, nay, DEMAND, they stock it for you.

So what is GPA? It’s hops. And lots of them. We here at Nøgne Ø love hops. We love hops so much we went all around the world to pick the cream of the crops in England, Slovenia, New Zealand, Czech Republic, USA, Germany and Australia. We couldn’t decide which ones we wanted to use, so we used them all! 13 different hops in total. From all around the globe. Now, that’s global indeed.

Get ready, people, because this beer will knock your socks off.

Harvesting hops

The majority of our hops is purchased through Charles Faram in England. We have a great cooperation with them.They are able to source almost every hop we require.

But buying hops through a hop merchant is a bit like purchasing food at the supermarket.  You get everything you need and it is all fresh and in good condition, but it does not connect you with the producer and the area where it originates.

That is why we have elected to buy our Styrian hop varieties directly from a farmer.  Recently we had the privilege to take part in harvesting hops with the Bosnar family in Gotevlje, near Celje in Slovenia. 

The smell of fresh hops was overwhelming during the harvesting.  In a wonderful way. Helping out removing leaves from the piles of hop cones as they came out from the picking machine, the hands got sticky with oils and resins from the hops.  It was almost overwhelming.

We think that every brewer and beer enthusiast should experience this. At least once. Because beer is not a product or a commodity. It is a result of dedication and love. 

And it all starts with the growing of the hops and barley. We should appreciate how it is all grown and experience what is behind an “ingredient”.

A great thanks to the Bosnar family for being so accommodating!  We look forward to being back next year.     

See more pictures from the harvesting here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/sd21t2dgb8vzrtd/ubiMD5Uvbi/Hops%20harvest

Hop growing/harvest

Our Aurora hops at the Bosnar farm in Slovenia has good growth. 

With warm summer days lately the hop plants have reached the top.

Imperial Brown Ale batch #768

When brewing Imperial Brown Ale batch #768, we tampered with the hop part of the recipe:

Chinook and E.K.Golding had to exit, to make room for Aurora and Bobek.  There is no reason to be alarmed, as the late addition of Columbus is still very much part of this beer.  Slovenian hops rule!

Transitions

Life is full of changes. Sometimes we need to choose.  Choose change.

Like with our IPAs. We have four right now. Our regular IPA, Two Captains, Citra Single Hop and #500.  As Two Captains is only around for a year, and there is soon another homebrew champion we can brew (The homebrewers championship takes place in April), sadly it needs to go.

This is of course an unfortunate thing for us. We love IPAs.
But, to our joy we were recently approached by a bar manager who wants us to make a Double Hop IPA. So we are soon back to four IPAs in our portfolio.
Double Hop IPA will be of English style, but with a bite of something American. We can promise 50 IBUs and dryhopping with Chinook.  Available on draft!