Hopheads, Sierra Nevada went the extra mile for you—quite literally—with their newest release, Southern Hemisphere Harvest. Seems they just weren’t happy with one fall hop harvest per year, so they traveled to New Zealand in the Southern Hemisphere and got a crop o’ hops. This is the newest addition to their Harvest Ale “family.” We’ve been to New Zealand. It’s exceptionally green there. We imagine these hops have to be fantastic. What a great idea.

Read the full press release here.

“Our newest addition to our Harvest family is Southern Hemisphere Harvest. This is the first time we know of that an American brewer has put out a beer with fresh-picked hops from the southern hemisphere. The inaugural ale will debut in late April and will feature fresh Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka and New Zealand Southern Cross hops, all from New Zealand.

Like our Celebration Ale, the fresh hops in this beer are dried right after being picked then shipped immediately to Chico for brewing so that they retain their peak aromatics and flavors. To ensure the freshest hops possible, we went to the added expense of flying these hops from New Zealand to Chico so we could brew with them the week after they were picked.”

[Images: Sierra Nevada / newzealand.com]