San Diego’s Pure Project recently was invited to participate in a global initiative to help shape the future of hops and they are bringing their consumers on board.
The Bract Brewing Programme, created by NZ Hops — a hop breeding company based in New Zealand — has teamed up with breweries across the country to help select and develop entirely unique hop varietals over the next decade.
Pure Project has been one of a few US breweries working directly with NZ Hops for the past few years instead of working through brokers, explained Marketing Project Coordinator, Brooke Slinger.
“Since the inception of Pure, we’ve had the drive to work directly with the farms that provide our ingredients,” she said. “This is a great opportunity to continue that tradition and work with multiple international growers at the same time. The opportunity to help steer the future of hops in New Zealand is an amazing gift.”
READ MORE: Pure Project Announces Participation in Bract Brewing Programme
Instead of just using their own in-house feedback, Pure is including a broader audience to share feedback by having customers connect their thoughts on new releases with a QR code that leads to a quick survey. As one of 20 US breweries participating in the Bract Brewing Programme, Pure Project will brew a series of beers over the next year using these new experimental hops. To create the fairest comparison, each beer in the series will be brewed using the same process and ingredient quantities, but with different hop varietals. The beers will be on draft in all of Pure Project’s taprooms one by one, and the local community is invited to taste each beer and provide feedback.
“Not only [does this] create more data for the hop breeders, but also gets beer fans personally involved in shaping the future of hops,” Slinger said. “The experience that each guest has when trying our NZ-ed beers helps determine the success of the experimental hops that are used in each batch.”
NZ Hops set up the review process for the project. Customers can scan a QR code and give their feedback. This feedback is instantly transmitted back to New Zealand where the data can be aggregated and reviewed. Pure Project has not coordinated with any other breweries in the program thus far.
“We are going through the trial hops at our own pace, and with our own recipes, but we may change that for some upcoming batches,” Slinger said.
Aside from including the NZ-ed releases on Pure Project tap lists at every taproom location, Slinger said they have held education sessions to ensure that the taproom staff is well-informed about the program and have shared the details on its social media channels.
”Our customers here in San Diego are very engaged; by learning about the program from our staff and knowing that their input will shape the future of hops, our customers have been very willing to share their feedback,” she said.
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