Brewers in Kent go hopping mad!
By: JimOldfield
September 23rd, 2012
Brewers in Kent are going hopping mad in a dash to serve the country’s freshest pint – in a new festival dedicated to stopping the decline of the UK hop trade.
During Kent Green Hops Beer Fortnight, 20 brewers will ditch their usual dried hop recipes – and brew new beers using fresh kentish hops picked just 12 hours earlier.
The festival is a response to industry fears that British hop farming could die out within a decade as brewers increasingly abandon UK varieties for stronger-flavoured imports from the USA, New Zealand and eastern Europe.
Just 2,500 acres of hops were grown in Britain last year – a 97 per cent drop from a peak of 72,000 acres in the 1870s – although the UK remains at the forefront of hop development, having pioneered dwarf and hedgerow plants thought to be more sustainable than higher climbing crops.
Organisers hope the new event – which launches at the Canterbury Food and Drink Festival on September 28 and then runs in pubs until October 12 – will raise the profile of British hops and encourage more brewers to use them.
Paul Corbett, managing director of hop merchant Charles Faram & Co Ltd, said: “Some growers have been idling crops this year because there haven’t been enough sales and if they can’t sell the hops they pull them out.
“Our fear is that if demand falls any further then the infrastructure not just for growing, but for picking and processing hops will disappear.
“If we don’t stick up for the UK hop industry now there will be no industry in a decade’s time,” he added.
Eddie Gadd, of Ramsgate Brewery, said: “Many people don’t realise what an incredible range of flavours and aromas brewers can create by using different varieties of British hops in different ways.
“It would be a national tragedy if this part of our history and heritage was allowed to just disappear.”
Green hops give beer a characteristic light and fresh flavour because they retain oils usually lost in the drying and preservation process.
The beers can only be made once a year, at the end of summer, and brewers say they are truly unique because you literally can’t make the same beer twice.
To qualify as an official Kent Green Hop Beer, brewers must only use Kent hops and brew with them within 12 hours of picking. The only exception to this is use of some dried hops for bittering – which must also be from Kent.
The breweries involved in Kent Green Hop Beer fortnight are: Abigale Brewing, Black Cat Brewery, Canterbury Ales, Canterbury Brewers, Tir Dha Ghlas, Goachers, Goody Ales, Hop Fuzz, Kent Brewery, Millis Brewing Co, Nelson Brewing Co Ltd, The Old Dairy Brewing Co Ltd, Old Forge Brewery, Shepherd Neame, Swan on the Green, Ramsgate Brewery, Ripple Steam, Royal Tunbridge Wells Brewing Company, Tonbridge Brewery, Wantsum Brewery, and Westerham Brewery Co Ltd.
Hand-Pumped link:
Kent Grren Hop Beer Fortnight
