For Working Title, 2025 was a varied journey, replete with new approaches, styles, ingredients and adjuncts. Fitting then, to round out the year with arguably our most comprehensive dive into a singular aspect of flavour: thiols.
Collaborating with the boffins at Freestyle Hops, we went full kiwi, in an NZ Hazy IPA. A huge thankyou to Kelly from Freestyle Hops, who’s back and forth for this beer made it a genuine, scientifically intriguing collaborative discussion.
The goal was to create a beer with a surfeit of thiols in both concentration and expression. The approach to generating thiols is a dichotomy between introducing bound thiols (BTs) and then unlocking them, to produce polyfunctional thiols (PFTs). The manner through which we unlocked the BTs is a BGW for another time, today we are just looking at the introduction of BTs.
Thiol introduction was via four key mechanisms. Firstly, we started with Undermodified Pilsner malt from Voyager. With less modification comes more BTs. Secondly, we added Mega Motueka and Nelson Sauvin to the mash. At mash temperature, the proteases help to unlock the BTs. Mega Motueka is a lyophilised red wine musk infused Motueka variant. Red wine skins are rich in BTs, as is Nelson Sauvin. Thirdly, we added Sauvignon Blanc grape juice in the boil. As well as boosting texture, Savvy B is rich in BTs. Finally, we added Motueka Sub Zero HopKief during high krausen. Being solventless, the HopKief process retains the BTs more so than advanced hop products that use supercritical CO2 as the solvent.
The result is a wonderland of PFTs. I get loads of grapefruit (3MH), and passionfruit (3MHA) and a little tickle of blackcurrant (4MMP) through the middle. Soft and fluffy, with the idiosyncratic kiwi hop notes. Enjoyable to make, enjoyable to drink. What more can you want from 2025.
