Hops

Does Victoria grow hops? Yes, in the Ovens Valley in the northeast of the state. Commercial hop growing has taken place near Myrtleford since the 1890s. Hop Products Australia, a subsidiary of the German hop merchant BarthHaas, runs hop gardens at Rostrevor in the Ovens Valley and at Bushy Park in the Derwent Valley in Tasmania.

Bright, a town in the Victorian Alps, also belongs to this hop history. The Grant Hay family owned hop farms there and is considered the most important supplier to Carlton & United. There's no reliable figure for how large the growing area in Victoria is today, so none is given here. What is certain is that the valley still ranks among the country's hop-growing regions.

What does a beer need hops for? They provide bitterness, which balances the sweetness of the malt, and aroma. The bitterness comes from the alpha acids in the cones, which only become soluble during boiling. The aroma oils evaporate easily, so aroma hops are added late in the kettle or cold into the tank.

Australian varieties like Galaxy and Vic Secret are in demand with craft brewers worldwide. They smell of tropical fruit, such as passionfruit and citrus, which suits the hoppy pale ales and IPAs that define Fitzroy and Collingwood. A classic lager from the big corporate brewery, by contrast, gets by with little aroma and relies on a mild bitterness. So anyone drinking a hoppy beer in Melbourne is often tasting hops that may have grown just a few hours' drive away.