Moutere hops for grapefruit and passion fruit in IPA

Moutere does two jobs at once

Moutere is a New Zealand variety from the Plant and Food Research breeding programme, named after the Moutere area near Nelson where much of the country's hop crop grows. It is a high alpha hop, with supplier sheets usually putting it in the high teens. That alone would make it a bittering hop. What makes it worth a guide is the aroma.

Rub a pellet and you get grapefruit, passion fruit and a resinous, slightly herbal edge. Some lots also show a fresh citrus peel note. It is a hop that can bitter an IPA in the kettle and then come back in the dry hop as the main aroma, which keeps a recipe simple.

High alpha means you must do the maths

The danger with a fruity high alpha hop is that brewers treat it like an aroma hop and add a lot of it hot. A 50 g whirlpool addition of a 17% alpha hop adds far more bitterness than 50 g of a 6% hop.

Work it out before brew day. In a 20 litre batch with an original gravity around 1.060, a 60 minute addition of about 22 g at 17% alpha gives roughly 40 IBU on a standard Tinseth estimate. That is plenty for a West Coast leaning IPA. Any whirlpool addition adds more, even below boiling, so count it. Our guide to hop stands below 80 °C shows how much.

Getting the grapefruit and passion fruit forward

For aroma, Moutere behaves like most New Zealand hops. It likes a cool whirlpool and a generous dry hop. A practical schedule for 20 litres:

• Bittering: 15 to 22 g at 60 minutes, for roughly 30 to 40 IBU.
• Whirlpool: 30 to 50 g at 75 to 80 °C for 20 minutes.
• Dry hop: 80 to 120 g (4 to 6 g per litre) near the end of fermentation.

The grapefruit tends to lead in a clear, dry beer. The passion fruit comes forward in a softer, hazier one with more residual body. If you want passion fruit first, mash a little higher, around 67 °C. Use a yeast that leaves some fullness.

Pairing Moutere with other hops

Moutere is bold enough to stand alone, but it plays well with others. A softer fruit hop such as Olicana, with mango and passion fruit, rounds out its edges. A pine or resin hop pushes the beer towards a classic West Coast profile. We would avoid pairing it with another high alpha resin hop in a big double IPA, because the result can turn harsh and green.

Watch the herbal edge. At very high dry hop rates, above about 8 g per litre, some brewers find Moutere turns grassy. More hops is not always more fruit.

Moutere in Indian conditions

High alpha hops lose bitterness as well as aroma when stored badly. Alpha acids oxidise over time, faster in heat. A Moutere pack that has sat in a warm courier van for a week in May will not give you the IBU your calculation expects.

Buy from a supplier who stores hops cold. Ask for the crop year and keep the pack in your freezer. If a pack has been warm for a long time, taste a hop tea before you brew: steep 2 g in 200 ml of water just off the boil, let it cool and smell it. Bright grapefruit means it is fine. Cheese or hay means use it for bittering only. Expect less aroma from it.

A recipe outline to start from

Here is a 20 litre West Coast leaning IPA built around Moutere. It is deliberately plain, so the hop does the talking:

• Grist: 5.5 kg pale ale malt (92%), 0.3 kg light crystal around 20 EBC (5%), 0.2 kg wheat malt (3%).
• Mash at 65 °C for 60 minutes. Target OG 1.060 or a little above.
• Hops: Moutere only, on the schedule above.
• Yeast: a clean American ale strain, fermented at 18 to 19 °C.
• Target FG 1.010, which gives about 6.6% ABV.

Use soft water with a sulphate to chloride ratio of around 2:1 to sharpen the bitterness. If your tap or borewell water is hard and high in carbonate, cut it with RO water first, otherwise the bitterness turns coarse and lingers on the back of the tongue.

Once you know how Moutere behaves alone, try swapping half the dry hop for a second variety and note what changes. That is how you learn a hop: one variable at a time.

Where the guesswork ends

Moutere asks you to think about two things at once: bitterness from alpha acids and aroma from oils. Most homebrew recipes treat these separately. Real brewing chemistry does not, because a whirlpool addition gives you both and fermentation changes both again.

Brew a single hop IPA with Moutere at the schedule above and record your OG, FG and how the bitterness tastes against the 40 IBU you planned. If it tastes harsher than expected, the whirlpool is the first place to look.

Common questions

Is Moutere a bittering hop or an aroma hop?

Both. Its high alpha acids make it efficient for bittering. Its grapefruit and passion fruit oils also make it a strong aroma hop in the whirlpool and dry hop.

What does Moutere smell like?

Grapefruit and passion fruit lead, with a resinous and slightly herbal edge. Some lots show fresh citrus peel.

How much Moutere should I dry hop with?

For a 20 litre IPA, 4 to 6 g per litre is a good starting range. Very high rates can push it towards grassy notes.

Does Moutere add bitterness in the whirlpool?

Yes. Its high alpha acids still isomerise at whirlpool temperatures, so count whirlpool additions in your IBU estimate.