Craft Beer Capital Hopstock Festival

Overview

As the weather cools down and we hunker down around the column heater, the country’s dedicated brewers are hard at work finishing off their latest batches of fresh hopped beer.

Every year, some of the country’s best known beer-makers gather to celebrate the harvest of hops from Nelson - the so-called ‘hop centre’ and unofficial beer capital of New Zealand. Mostly used while dry, hops are a core ingredient in the beer making process. The ‘fresh hopped’ technique gives brewers access to hops straight off the bine, which ultimately leads to more aroma and more flavour.

To celebrate the brewing feat, 18 of Wellington's craft beer bars will ready their taps for the annual Craft Beer Capital Hopstock festival. Now three years in, the festival allows beer lovers to skip from bar to bar to sample the fresh hopped goods. This year 28 breweries have taken part to produce 25 beers. Enthusiasts can expect appearances from well-known boutique brewers: 8 Wired, Deep Creek, Garage Project, Epic, ParrotDog, among plenty of others smaller outfits.

See the full line-up and participating venues.