History
SETTLERS ARRIVE IN NEW ZEALAND
 During the 1800s, the remote, beautiful and climatically-favoured islands of New Zealand became a magnet for Europeans of many nationalities. British and mid-European settled side by side in the new land. Some of the more discerning, or perhaps the luckiest, chose the lovely sheltered coastal area of Nelson province. They bought with them their lifestyles, their religions and, of course, their hops.
NELSON, THE HOPS CENTRE
 The Southern English and German settlers who came to Nelson were fortunate, as hops are very latitude sensitive and this area proved an ideal host for the new crop. Visitors to the region today will still come across mixtures of southern English and Bavarian names on letter boxes. Those knowledgeable in the ways of the hop will discover a wealth of European and old English varieties twining amongst the hedgerows.
The hops that were first planted in the Nelson area more than 150 years ago thrived particularly well with the long hours of sunshine, interspersed with regular rainfall and relative freedom from the winds, and the area soon became the only centre of production in New Zealand for the crop.
RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGES
During the 1920s the variety 'Late Cluster' was introduced to New Zealand from California in the USA. Known locally as 'Cali', this variety grew much better than the European and English varieties giving also much greater yields. Unfortunately by the late 1940s the late Cluster variety had become so severely infected by the root rotting disease Phytophthora that a hop research station was set up funded by the New Zealand Brewers Association, to breed new varieties resistant to the disease.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF NEW VARIETIES
Initially the Late Cluster variety was crossed with hops selected from the old and noble varieties of Europe which showed resistance to Phytophthora, to obtain by 1960 three resistant strains known as Smoothcone, First Choice and Calicross. However, by 1960 breweries throughout the world had begun to demand seedless hops for brewing because of the increased popularity of lager-type beers.
While other hop growing countries were approaching this problem by eliminating male plants from their hop gardens to induce seedlessness, in New Zealand note was taken that in the botanical world interest had surged in tetraploid and triploid plants that had successfully been produced in other plant varieties.
NELSON TRIPLOIDS SUCCEED
Triploids, with their odd number of chromosomes, were found to produce virtually sterile seedless fruits whilst retaining all the flavour and composition of the original.
At the New Zealand Hop Research Station, the late Dr R.H. J. Roborgh, following a breeding programme to combine both aroma and alpha yield, produced the world's first triploid hop plants. This work had been unparalleled in the world until the early 1980s when American and German scientists had been able to go some way towards producing similar varieties in their own countries. However in those cases still without the essential oil profiles resembling the European parent which, combined with high alpha acid, represents the New Zealand hop.
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