Stereochemistry Vol. 12 Puts Cascade in a New Zealand Hop Bill

Three New Zealand hops and one American one. The twelfth entry in Spindletap's brew-it-once series is an 8 percent DIPA that finishes, by the brewery's own description, like white zinfandel.

• Style: New Zealand DIPA
• Release Date: 2026-09-04
• ABV: 8%
• Spindletap Brewery (Houston, TX)

Twelve volumes in, the rule has not moved. Each Stereochemistry is brewed once and then retired.

Spindletap Brewery released Vol. 12 this week, an 8 percent New Zealand DIPA pouring on draft at the Houston taproom and going out in 16 ounce four-packs. "We only brew each volume once, so when this one's gone, it's gone," the brewery told subscribers.

The hop bill is the part worth slowing down for: Cascade, Superdelic, Motueka and Nelson. Three of those four are New Zealand varieties. Cascade is not.

Cascade is the American hop that effectively opened the modern craft era after its release in 1972, and it has spent the fifty years since serving as the reference point for grapefruit and pine. Dropping it into a beer badged as a New Zealand DIPA gives the recipe a familiar floor to stand on. Above it, Motueka leans lime and lemon, Nelson Sauvin carries the white grape and gooseberry character that gets it compared to sauvignon blanc, and Superdelic is the newest name on the list, a New Zealand variety that has only been in commercial hands for a few years.

Spindletap describes mango, passionfruit and red berry up front, then lime zest, grapefruit and a smooth white zinfandel finish.

That last note is a more interesting reach than it first looks. New Zealand hops have a long association with wine language, though the comparison almost always goes to sauvignon blanc, which is where Nelson Sauvin got the second half of its name. White zinfandel points somewhere else entirely: a pale, off-dry American rose with strawberry and light red fruit to it. The red berry the brewery lists up front and the finish it lands on are the same thread pulled through the beer.

The recipe belongs to Amy, and the brewery has posted a sit-down video with her breaking down the New Zealand hops behind it.

The can, meanwhile, is a tribute to outlaw country. Spindletap points to David Allan Coe and the ramblin'-man energy of Waylon Jennings, and the artwork puts a vintage boombox in an open desert with sound waves and molecular diagrams streaming out of the speakers. The panel reads music for your mouth.

Vol. 12 is pouring now on draft and available in 16 ounce four-packs to go from the Hirsch Road brewery. On the series' own terms, it will not be back.