The Hop Harvest Fest is returning to the Inner West Ale Trail from 11-17 April with 11 breweries releasing exclusive new beers to their tap rooms.
The Ale Trail is home to 17 independent local breweries spanning six suburbs and all within a 5km radius in Sydney’s inner west.
This year the participating breweries include Batch Brewing Co., Future Brewing, Kicks Brewing, Mixtape Brewing & Bar, Philter Brewing, Sauce Brewing Co., The Grifter, Wayward Brewing Co., White Bay Brewery, Wildflower and Young Henrys.
To celebrate the Australian hop harvest, the breweries create new beers made from Galaxy hops which were picked fresh from the farm in the Victorian high country and brought to Sydney to be brewed.
Co-founder of Young Henrys and president of Inner West Brewers’ Association, Richard Adamson said this year he travelled to collect the hops.
“Some of the Young Henrys team, some TAFE brewing students and myself piled into vans and drove 7 hours to Bright in Victoria. Then we crammed over 200kg of fresh picked Galaxy hops into the vans and powered our way back to Sydney to deliver them to 11 Inner West breweries to brew that very afternoon,” he said.
The fresh hop beers are diverse and flavourful, with the brewers producing a variety of styles, from hazy pales to dark ales to experimental IPAs and more.
“Fresh hops are amazing. Usually, hops are processed and pelletised so they can be stored all year round. Fresh hops offer a completely different flavour profile – they’re really vibrant, really unique with a flavour you can’t get any other time.”
Some flavours to keep an eye out for include the Young Henrys’ Across the Universe hazy pale ale, Wildflower’s collaboration with Mountain Culture and Cloudburst, the Bumbershoot IPA, White Bay’s King Peanut golden ale and The Grifter’s Wet Hop Acid Drop sour.
Adamson said the event is all about celebrating the entire process of making beer.
“I think there’s a lot of work that goes into hops before brewers get them. So, we wanted to celebrate our hop farmers and beer’s connection to agriculture. That can sometimes often be forgotten when you’re sinking a schooner in the pub.
“We also wanted to celebrate beer and all its styles and show how one common ingredient – the fresh Galaxy hops – can be used by different brewers to create 11 very unique beers.”
The festival first launched last year, bringing large crowds of beer lovers to the Inner West Trail from across Sydney.
“The Hop Harvest Fest is a beer-lover’s dream and we’re so excited to do it again after a great turn-out last year,” said Adamson.
In addition to the festival beers, there will be a wide range of craft beer, cocktail wine and non-alcoholic drinks to sample along the Ale Trail.
There will also be 15 brewery restaurants and food trucks serving a range of food from burgers, wood-fired pizzas, salads, tacos, terrines and more.
Plus, there will be live music on the weekends at several of the venues. An event souvenir is also on offer for patrons that try all 11 festival beers and complete their Hop Harvest Fest passport, they can receive a free special edition festival t-shirt.