25 Apr 2023 Jack Black passionate on its new limited edition IPA

Jack Black, one of SA’s pioneering craft breweries, has just released its first limited-edition release of the year: the Fresh Hop IPA, brewed with whole-cone Southern Passion hops.

This popular beer is only available once a year during the hop harvest window, and showcases the full freshness, flavour and aroma of late addition hops.

Jack Black’s head brewer, Nico du Plessis, shares the special process behind this year’s brew, starting with a journey to the hop farms of George to pick the freshest hops straight from the vine.

“We decided to go with South African-bred Southern Passion for its unique, complex and aromatic properties. Usually, the aroma profile of Southern Passion hops includes passion fruit, melon, litchi, and guava but because we went to get fresh cone hops, other aromas like fresh cut grass, summer rain and earthy tones also come through.”

After getting the cones from George, the trip to Jack Black began so that they could brew on the same day in order to keep the hops as fresh as possible. The decision was made to keep the malt aroma subtle to let the hops take centre stage, resulting in a crisp mouthfeel and a beautiful bitter finish. 

Nico says, “Hops were added during different stages of the brewing process to ensure maximum utilisation, with the majority being added right at the end to ensure maximum hop aroma. We decided to dry-hop with Loral and Simcoe Cryo as well to complement the Southern passion flavours. We are truly happy with how the beer came out and that it still kept a lot of the fresh hop characters you only get with whole cone hops.”

The Fresh Hop IPA is available for purchase online, from Jack Black’s Taproom (where it’s also available on tap), and at selected retailers in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Pretoria.

Source: Jack Black – for orders and more info, click here