There’s increasing excitement in South Africa’s burgeoning craft beer sector about a new hop developed over the past 15 years by South African Breweries [SAB] on its farms in the Southern Cape region, and recently released to a select few microbrewers around the country.

“Because of this hop we’re able to make truly South African, full-flavored ale and can rightfully claim to have created a new style of beer. We can call it South African Ale. It’s going to happen soon. If I don’t do it someone else will,” said Moritz Kallmeyer, owner of Drayman’s Brewery in Pretoria and one of the country’s leading microbrewers.

Hops are the conical shaped female flowers of the humulus lupulus plant and grow on vines. They give beer its bitterness and flavor. Most of the world’s popular cultivars, such as the Saaz and the Cascade, are grown in Europe and the Yakima Valley in Washington state in the United States.