2025年新シリーズ - HOP IDOL

The introduction of a new series isn’t something that needs to align with a new year, but we have often tended to do so. A new year is a natural timing for changes and updates, and it’s one of great anticipation.

The truth is that 2024 was a year of huge change for KBC. We really are transforming as an organisation, and that can’t happen overnight (or from one year into the next, like a flick of a switch), and so 2025 is going to be in many ways just as much a year of change for us as 2024 was. We are getting excited about sharing a lot of these next steps, but want to kick things off with our first new series.

IPAs are a big part of our lineup, like they are for most craft breweries, although we have often tried to avoid the obvious or traditional. Our Kimagure Series, where we make an IPA best suited to the season in which it is offered, might be our most orthodox, but even within that we have plenty of variety. Then we have our Belgian IPA series (in addition to our core series Belgian IPAs), showcasing the interaction between our yeast and modern hop varieties.

We have also, for the last few years, created one-off series of 6 releases, with each a theme playing on this style. The reason we do this, aside from IPAs already being incredibly ubiquitous, is that IPAs are really nowadays not a style, but a group of styles, and no longer simply mean more fragrant and bitter, which one could somewhat argue it used to mean. IPA only really means “an ale with lots of hops” (or, if you believe in the Cold IPA style name, even inclusive of lager yeast!), and so it no longer even necessitates bitterness. IPAs can be dark or light, clean and crisp or opaque and thick, dry or sweet, and even sour. We explored the 6 tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami, spicy) in one series, IPAs inspired by different nations in another. This was followed up by an exploration of the evolution of the style from making it around the world to the juicy hop bombs that dominate today, and last year we went in the direction of making fruit IPAs that were combined with hops that also represented the fruit.

This year, we decided to showcase specific hop varieties. This might sound a bit less interesting and straightforward. A single hop series? Haven’t half the craft breweries done that??

The reason we want to go down that path, however, is multifold. First of all, we want to showcase the changes in our company, and our new equipment. We have in this last year brought in a centrifuge, made a wide variety of changes to lower our DO levels to world-class levels (DO, or dissolved oxygen, being the cause of beer spoilage, and the enemy of hop character), and so believe we can make better IPAs than ever.

Secondly, we have brought in a new head brewer who has worked at some of the true hop-heavy pioneering American breweries, and who loves to explore the new cutting edge of hoppy beers as well, and as a result we have changed our approach to IPAs a lot, both in that we are simply using a lot more hops, but also making many tweaks to our processes to get the best character out that we can (this also means some new equipment, like our Hopnik, a hop dosing system that can really help improve the character).

Last, but definitely not least, we have been shopping for hops very differently this year. We shared about it in a couple of other blog posts, but Paul made it out to New Zealand in spring of this year, where he went to the source, got to test out a whole bunch of lots of great hops, and directly contracted some of the best ones that he got to try. We then went out to Yakima Valley in the US to do the same thing in America’s hottest hop growing region. What this means is that, while we have some new varieties of hops in that we didn’t have before, we also have better selected hops of varieties that we were already getting, often of lots that most other breweries in Japan don’t have access to.

So much as you might want to enjoy and appreciate a single origin coffee variety, we wanted to showcase some of these great hops in a way where you can identify and appreciate the specific hop, and its characters, as much as possible.

In short: for this series, we want the hop to be the star of the show in this series. We want to shine the spotlight, and for the hop to bask in all its deserved glory. And for this reason, we have decided to name the series “Hop Idol”, and the first budding talent to take the stage?
Kohia Nelson.

And what is Kohia Nelson? Well, unlike the other hops we will showcase in this series, which will be true single varieties, Kohia Nelson is in itself a blend of a kind. It includes, as the name suggests, Nelson Sauvin, but also in the 2023 blend includes Rakau, and its secret incredient: passionfruit. The passionfruit is processed in a specific way in that it is dried, the seeds are removed, and it is then mixed with the hops prior to pelletization. The Freestyle website describes it as “passionfruit/orange/guava juice with great citrus complexity that leans towards pink grapefruit” and while its aroma is sweet, it is in essence also very dry and crisp.

Our new series, designed by our new design partner, Stout Collective, has taken this series’ idea and created a label that is bright and poppy, just as you might expect from the concept. So why don’t you try them all, and decide who you might vote for in a contest?

The first Hop Idol release, Kohia Nelson, will be kicking off 2025 right from the start, with the plan to put it on sale from 4th Jan, and to ship out from the 7th Jan. Let’s see the new year kick off under strobe lights!

Keep an eye out for our next post, coming soon, when we will introduce our next updated series.