Author: Will Ziebell, The Crafty Pint
Original Article published on 4 November 2023
In previous iterations of this features, Hawkers have tended to be a bit of a problem child for the team at The Crafty Pint. The Rezza brewers generally release so many standout beers that it's tough to narrow them down to just one or two. Once again, we've failed in our task to pick out just one from another year of high-quality consistency, but we've narrowed it down a little: their hop series (admittedly, that is series plural, not singular).
Their Four Seasons series of IPAs is a cute little experiment in which they use the same raw ingredients but in different ratios in order to create vastly different beers suited to the season in which they're released. Cute, maybe, but also containing a 10 percenter that was way more drinkable than a hazy triple IPA should be. (That said, it was far from the biggest beer to leave Henty Street in 2023, as their barrel-aged program continued to deliver the goods very, very, very, very, very, very frequently.)
But it was the Experimental Series that stood out the most as the brewery used multiple beers to explore the concept of terroir in hops. First up was Sheer Terroir, a trio of beers hopped with Citra in which the only point of difference was the farm in America from whence the Citra in each was sourced. They followed that with Fashionably Punctual, made with Nelson Sauvin from Freestyle Hops which was picked a few weeks apart in early and late harvest, while Trio Of Dips showcased Cascade hops grown on three different continents.
Each series offered a fascinating way to explore hops, providing drinkers with a rare insight into variability, and a glimpse of something we expect to see more of in the future.
