The Yenda beer brand is exploiting its links to some of the world’s top whisky brands to develop the perfect boilermaker beer.

As well as co-owning Yenda through the Australian Beer Company joint venture, Coca-Cola Amatil – through a partnership with spirits giant Beam Suntory – is the Australian agent for whisky brands from all the key producer nations of Scotland, Ireland, the United States, Canada and Japan.

Leveraging this relationship, the company will launch Yenda Green Hop, a fresh hop beer that has been brewed and blended specially to match with one of its whiskies, Highland Park 12 Year Old Single Malt.

Once declared the ‘greatest all-rounder in the world of malt whisky’ by beer and whisky criticMichael Jackson, Highland Park was selected based on its floral nose and bonfire, heathery taste profile with a slight hint of peat.

Blending in progress: Australian Beer Company technical brewer Greg Short and head brewer Andy Mitchell

To complement its floral profile, the Yenda team sourced fresh Vic Secret and Galaxy hops from Hop Products Australia’s (HPA) Rostrevor Hop Farm in Bright, Victoria, earlier this year.

A more robust version of the Yenda Pale Ale was brewed and hops added in varying degrees to components that were kept separate for blending purposes, with a small amount put into ex-whisky barrels for three months.

The brewers were joined this week by CCA’s resident whisky expert Dan Woolley, a select group of bar operators and Australian Brews News, who all participated in blending the beer to create the perfect match for Highland Park.

With only 280 cases brewed, Yenda Green Hop will be sold as a boilermaker serve with Highland Park 12 Year Old Single Malt in 10-20 key venues, including Surly’s in Sydney, from next month.

Preparing for the blending to commence in Yenda

Green Hop is intended to be the first in a series of boilermaker beers from Yenda, with the potential to create beers to match with whiskies from all of the countries where Beam Suntory’s distilleries are located.

Based on experiments currently underway at the brewery, the next beer in the series looks set to build on the success of Yenda’s AIBA Gold Medal-winning Chocolate Vanilla Stout.

A similar brew is currently ageing in ex-whisky barrels, setting it up to match with Knob Creek 9 Year Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon.

The initiative comes amid the Australian bar scene’s increasing interest in boilermakers, consisting of a whisky and craft beer, matched to deliver complementary flavours as the drinker slowly sips on both.

For further Yenda Green Hop stockist details, visit the Yenda Facebook page.

The Australian Beer Company covered the writer’s travel costs to attend this event.