Considered A Kiwi Names the Farm, Not Just the Hop

Twin Elephant is starting a rotating New Zealand hop showcase, and the first entry lists its hops by farm rather than by variety alone. A soft 6.2 percent pale on local malted oats, with tasting notes that keep drifting toward the wine aisle.

• Style: New Zealand Pale Ale
• Release Date: 2026-09-23
• ABV: 6.2%
• Twin Elephant Brewing Company (Chatham, NJ)

The hop bill on Twin Elephant's newest pale ale reads Eggers Lily and Eggers Motueka. Most beers name the variety and stop there. This one names the farm first, and that turns out to be the point.

Considered A Kiwi is a 6.2 percent New Zealand pale ale, and the Chatham, New Jersey brewery is framing it as the opening entry in a rotating showcase of New Zealand hops. That framing matters more than a one-off release would. A showcase series implies the hops are the variable being tested and everything else is deliberately held steady, which is a useful way to taste through a hop-growing region over time.

Eggers is a real and specific place. The farm sits in the Upper Moutere Valley near Nelson, at the top of New Zealand's South Island, where German settlers planted the country's first hops alongside grapevines more than a century and a half ago. It is run by a sixth-generation grower and works a deliberately narrow set of varieties, using wide harvest windows to produce early and late selections that can taste like different hops entirely. The approach borrows directly from wine: block, picking date, and vintage treated as things a buyer should get to choose between. Listing the farm alongside the variety is the natural consequence.

Underneath the hops, the beer is built on local malted oats. Oats are a texture ingredient rather than a flavor one, contributing the soft, faintly creamy body that Twin Elephant is describing as plush. The brewery says the result balances that modern softness against what it calls a crisp New Zealand snap.

For aroma, the brewery lists ripe mango, lime zest, white grape and a touch of stonefruit over sweet citrus. On the palate it reports bright lime and sauvignon blanc grape. That last descriptor is standard vocabulary for New Zealand hops and not merely marketing flourish, as the region's varieties genuinely share aromatic compounds with the grape. A pale ale landing in that register would sit well next to something briny or sharp, such as oysters, a goat cheese salad, or fish off a grill with a lot of lime on it.

Considered A Kiwi is pouring now at Twin Elephant's Chatham taproom at 13 Watchung Avenue, with four-packs listed as an upcoming release.