Self Awarewolves Puts New Zealand's Nectaron on a Black IPA

A black IPA arriving in September, dry hopped with Cascade, Simcoe and Nectaron. That is about fifty years of hop breeding stacked into one glass, aimed at a style that does not come around often anymore.

• Style: Black IPA
• Release Date: 2026-09-17
• ABV: N/A
• Bunnyman Brewing (Burke, VA)

Nectaron is a recent New Zealand hop, and it usually turns up in pale, hazy beer built to show off stone fruit and tropical character. Bunnyman Brewing has put it on a black IPA.

The Northern Virginia brewery lists Self Awarewolves among its September releases and describes a black IPA dry hopped with Cascade, Simcoe and Nectaron. No other specifications have been published.

That hop bill spans about half a century of breeding. Cascade was released in the early 1970s and effectively founded the American hop character, all grapefruit and floral bite. Simcoe followed around the turn of the millennium and brought the resinous, piney register that a generation of West Coast IPA was built on. Nectaron is the newcomer of the three by decades.

Putting them over dark malt is the part that makes the beer interesting. Black IPA had a real moment in American brewing around the start of the 2010s and has been comparatively scarce since, largely because it is a difficult balance to hold. The style wants the color and a suggestion of roast without the coffee-and-char intensity that would swamp a heavy dry hop, and the hops have to be chosen to work against that darkness rather than in spite of it. Cascade is a sound instinct there. Its grapefruit sharpness is a classic counterweight to roast, and the pairing is much of why the style worked the first time around. Nectaron is the newer proposition, and stone fruit over dark malt is not a combination drinkers will have encountered often.

The name fits the calendar. Bunnyman has a standing habit of puns across its tap lists, and a werewolf beer landing in mid-September puts it in front of drinkers just as the fall lineup and the brewery's Halloween-season programming get going.

Self Awarewolves does not yet appear on the Burke or Lorton beer lists, both dated September 17. Bunnyman runs three Fairfax County taprooms, in Burke, Lorton and Chantilly, each with a separate tap list.