Beer enthusiasts will have the rare chance to follow the path of Garston hops from their harvest to Queenstown’s Altitude Brewing during the second Garston Hops Harvest celebration this Saturday.
Described as a "once-in-a-beer-lifetime journey", punters will be taken down to Garston Hops — about 60km south of Queenstown — where they’ll first get an exclusive, behind-the-scenes farm tour.
Once the hops are harvested, they’ll be loaded on to a Clydesdale-drawn carriage, which ticket-holders can walk beside, as it makes its way to Fairlight.
There, the hops — and humans — will be loaded on to the Kingston Flyer steam train and transported to Kingston, where they’ll be transferred to Queenstown’s Million Dollar Cruise boat, which will deliver the precious cargo to Altitude Brewing’s base near the Frankton marina, where the hops will go straight into the fermenter to create this year’s Fresh Hop beer.
The event, which runs from 8am till 8pm, includes transport to and from Garston — and vice versa — lunch, a post-harvest dinner, six premium craft beers and exclusive first access to a new collab brew from Altitude Brewing and Australia’s Mount Holly Beer.
Tickets cost $251 per person via Humanitix — there’s also the option of a self-drive farm tour and lunch-only ticket for $50 each.
