The Future of Hops: New Varieties and Technologies from Clayton Hops
Brian Clayton, CEO of Clayton Hops, discusses the company’s growth to four farms in New Zealand and their innovative hop products. He highlights their Amplifire™ pellets and oil, which boost flavor and aroma, increase beer yields, and offer environmental benefits like a low carbon footprint due to direct oil extraction from wet hop cones. These products are ideal for cold-side applications and also work well in hop waters and non-alcoholic beers.
Clayton also shares their rapid processing of T90 hop pellets, achieving completion within seven days of harvest. The company is introducing new hop varieties in partnership with Plant & Food Research, with commercial availability expected in 2025, offering unique “kiwi” flavors for brewers. Despite a 10% US tariff, the favorable foreign exchange rate helps maintain affordability. He invites interested parties to learn more and order through their website, which includes an e-commerce platform for US customers.
About Clayton Hops:
We are New Zealand’s largest hop grower, producing flavourful aromatic hops that we process in our world-class hop processing, packaging and cool store facility. We supply our hop products to brewers around the globe.
We have an impressive innovation line up, with brewers in mind. This includes the Southern Hemisphere’s first and only cryogenic processing line to make concentrated hop pellets. We also produce concentrated fresh hop oil products here in New Zealand.
It’s not just products, there are new and exciting hop varieties that we are bringing to the market, thanks to our partnership with Plant & Food Research, our country’s leading hop breeder.
Clayton Hops has brought real scale, sophistication and innovation to the New Zealand hops industry, being key pillars to producing a reliable supply of premium quality hop products and continually improving environmental outcomes.
