The New Moon Harvest is a lot of Nelson Sauvin picked under March’s new moon in New Zealand’s Moutere Valley, and it is now headed into beer at 90 breweries in 16 countries. It is the second year of Eggers Hops’ Terranean Project, and according to the Eggers Hops press release on Brewbound, 42 of those breweries are in the United States, with releases rolling out through October and November.
Bureau astronomers would like it on the record that a new moon is the phase when Earth’s satellite shows almost no lit face at all. So this is less harvesting by moonlight and more harvesting by the moon’s absence. The humans seem aware of that, which is sort of the point.
What the Terranean Project is actually asking
Eggers Hops calls the Terranean Project an exploration of the forces that shape hops. Kem Eggers, the company’s co-founder and chief horticulturalist, put the question plainly in the release:
“For the new moon hop, we needed a lot that was at the ideal maturity and sensory to harvest. I’ve always been curious about what really influences hop maturity and aroma. We know soil, weather and picking time all play their part. But what else might be going on? What about the celestial influences?”
Note the shape of that quote. It is a question, not a result. Nothing in the release claims the moon changed the hop, and the Bureau won’t claim it either. What the New Moon Harvest offers is a shared test batch: one hop lot, one harvest timing, and a lot of different brewers seeing what they get from it. Whether lunar timing does anything measurable is still the project’s open question.
The release frames it as something that “started as a question in a hop garden.”
Where the New Moon Harvest hop is landing
The spread is the striking part. The release names breweries at both extremes of distance: Aliment Brewing, 18 km down the road from Eggers Hops, and Norm Brewing in Belgium, 18,000 km away. Breweries in New Zealand, Japan, Brazil, France, the UK and the US are all taking part. Eggers says they range from tiny independent taprooms to some of the biggest names in the industry.
The release does not publish the full brewery list. So the Bureau can’t tell you whether any San Diego or California brewery is involved, and we won’t guess. Eggers points followers to its Instagram, @eggerhops, for updates as more New Moon Harvest beers are released.
First US New Moon Harvest beer: DRENCHED New Moon
The first US release was New Jersey Beer Co.’s DRENCHED New Moon, an 8.8% double IPA. That is the only US beer the release names, and it gives no tasting notes. Double IPA fans who want something to drink while waiting can read about Tröegs’ Hop Cyclone hazy double IPA in our archives.
The brewers’ side of the story
Amanda Cardinali, owner of The Seed: A Living Beer Project, is one of the participants quoted in the release, and she is clearly drawn more to the meaning than the mechanics:
“I love the imagery, meaning, and intangible aura captured by harvesting hops under a new or full moon. The moon has so much power and energy, and it’s so special to harness that in an ingredient shared with us to use. When so much of what we try to do with beer is connect people, this is such a special example of connecting people from across the world through a shared interest in meaning and intent.”
Whatever the moon does to lupulin, that part checks out. The New Moon Harvest is a 16-country conversation built around one hop lot.
Why Nelson Sauvin makes a good test subject
Nelson Sauvin is no stranger to Earth’s brewers. It shows up all over our files, from Alpine Beer Co.’s Nelson IPA to the hop bill on North Park Beer Co.’s latest IPA pair. New Zealand hop growing has drawn big-supplier attention before, too, as in our report on a global hop supplier partnering with a New Zealand family farm.
Timing obsession isn’t new, either. Brewers already pay close attention to when hops are picked and how quickly they reach the kettle, which is what fresh hop season is about. The New Moon Harvest just adds one more variable to the calendar, and it’s a big one, about 384,000 km away.
What the Bureau will watch as the New Moon Harvest rolls out
- Which 42 US breweries are in the New Moon Harvest, once Eggers or the breweries say.
- Whether any participant publishes a side-by-side with a standard Nelson Sauvin lot. That would be the closest thing to evidence.
- Release timing through November, as more New Moon Harvest beers reach taps.
Until then, this is a well-organized global experiment with a poetic premise and an unanswered question at its core. Bureau scientists respect that more than a tidy answer they can’t verify.
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