A month ago I was invited to the last brew at Mac’s Shed 22 waterfront brewery before production was moved to Christchurch.
It was a very special and rather sad event. The brewing team decided to go out on a high by making the special harvest ale Brewjolais their last brew. Brewjolais is a green hopped beer meaning that it is produced with the new season Motuaka hops fresh from the farm before they are dried.
Hops are usually dried in a kiln immediately after picking as their moisture content causes them to spoil in storage.
Originally Brewjolais was produced at Mac’s Nelson Brewery where the precious green buds could be raced from farm gate to kettle before they had a chance to spoil. After the Nelson brewery was closed production was moved to Wellington and the precious hops had to be ferried across Cook Straight.
When I joined the brew a fortnight ago, head brewer Ally Clem had been up since the wee hours having set off from a Motueka Motel before sunrise in order to pick up the hops and meet the ferry.
Meanwhile his brewing crew had been hard at work taking the beer through the initial stages of the process. I watched as the incredibly aromatic hops were loaded from a hire van into a vessel called a hopback  and the hot malt liquor from the kettle was worked through the “bed” of hops taking on a kaleidoscope of wonderful aromas and flavours along the way.
Each year Brewjolais is brewed to a very similar recipe with the variety of hops changing, this year the variety Motueka was used and the resulting beer has a big herbaceous slightly savoury hop character and a big rich malt body.
Brewjolais will be released through the Mac’s brew bars around the country on the 1st of April at which point consumer group the Society of Beer Advocates will raise a toast saluting Mac’s for what they have achieved and encouraging Lion Nathan to continue to produce special beers like Brewjolais. My sentiments exactly.