Rakau
Stone fruit and pine resin, fuller and more resinous than the other New Zealand varieties.
Alpha acid
9-11%
9% - 11%
Against every variety on this site
Typical use
Dual
Enough alpha to bitter and enough character to finish the same beer.
At 60 minutes
35 IBU
For 30 g at the mid-range alpha in a 20 litre batch at 1.050, by Tinseth
Origin
New Zealand
A traditional variety with no single release date
Where it belongs
- American IPA
- Double IPA
If you cannot get it
Ranked by how convincingly each one stands in. A substitution changes the beer; matching the alpha acid only matches the bitterness, not the aroma.
Buying it
Hops are perishable and alpha acid falls with warm storage. Buy vacuum-packed pellets, check the crop year and the alpha figure printed on the pack, and keep them in a freezer. A pack stored in a warm cupboard for a year can have lost a third of its bitterness, which is the usual reason a repeated recipe comes out tasting flat.
Find Rakau pelletsAn affiliate search link, scoped to this variety rather than to a guessed listing.
More from New Zealand
Nelson Sauvin
10-13%White wine, gooseberry and crushed grape. Named for its resemblance to Sauvignon Blanc, and genuinely like it.
Motueka
6.5-8.5%Lime and lemon zest over a Saaz-like herbal base, which is exactly what its parentage would suggest.
Riwaka
4.5-6.5%Intense passionfruit and grapefruit at surprisingly low alpha. Scarce, expensive and worth it as a late addition.
Wai-iti
2.5-3.5%Peach, apricot and lime, very soft. Too low in alpha to bitter anything, which is the point: it is a pure aroma hop.