Hullabloo,
sadly, or perhaps maybe thankfully, the title of this post is not the ingredients list for some new-fangled modern "craaaft" beer. Although, am aware that at least one of them could impart some vociferous disgust in many. In fact, that is kind of what this post is about. My experiences of, and the reaction of others to, three recent(ish) boozey features, with remarkably different results.
Its probably best to explain, or rather perhaps to remind readers, that I like hops. I am willing to admit that they feature in all of my top ten beers of the last decade. Am not averse to any particular other ingredient by the way, but like all those that drink I have preferences. And that of course is an understandably fine way to provide assumptions, sometimes negatively. A recent chat with a chum however caused us to discuss the reasons behind some fairly strong reactions to certain ingredients. So I have decided to look at the issue in time order, based mainly on when I heard people discussing them in places over the last four years. I genuinely hope this will be better than I am misdescribing it thus far.......
About four years ago at IMBC I came across a beer with Tonka beans in it. For some reason my recent memorial dalliances have somehow mixed that up with Tonka cars, which may be incorrect, but anyway, this was the first time I think I had come across a beer with such a potential flavouring. I do know it was brewed by Hawkshead......
I recall being surprised at the scope and depth of chocolatey vanilla flavours on offer, and this appreciation has continued in the two versions of BrewYork Tonkoko stout, another strange sounding (perhaps) chocolateblock of darkness, that is likewise vast in the range of flavours shown in the taste. I can also say that whilst out amidst the circles of persons with interest in beer ingredients, I thus far have yet to hear any discontent regarding Tonka bean's inclusion.
So. Sabro. I think this "new" hop may have been called HBC438 or similar prior to this point, however being a citrussy and fruit laden burst of wonder it obviously features in far more - and admittedly too many - beers to mention. Admittedly my potential inability to remember its pre name name, if that makes sense, is frustrating, but since its identity was found I can't say I have come across any complaints or criticisms for it's beery inclusion either .
Its interesting then that I predicted time order, because I think in fact that the oldest of the three ingredients featured in beers of the UK is good ole "milky" (but in fact sugary) lactose. Myself and my mate discussed this based on a quite noticeable disgruntlement amongst many about lactose being not only in one particular brewer's beers, but likely it's inclusion in new styles such as milkshake IPA for example.
I know that the first time I tried lactose in a beer was when I first tried a taste of Mackeson. I imagine WF gave me a sip when I was 9 or 10, either to dissuade me from beer (based on my youth and nothing else) or to enlighten me about it (based on its taste, as well as my youth). Am not going to suggest for a second that I liked it but suffice to say by the time I was 17 I already disregarded Mackeson from my....um...list of potential low alcohol options....
The thing is, if the amount or usage of lactose in today's excellent small and micro brewers beers was in any way similar to Mackeson I could understand dissatisfaction. But in terms of, for instance, brewers like Wander Beyond, an operation quite widely criticised for their usage of the milky product, then I would have to say there is no comparison. And am certain this would count for the higher majority of modern small brewed outputs in the UK over the last two years or so. Crucially for me, despite initial concern based on having not tried modern era beers with it in, I have to say that thus far I love Wander Beyond beers, which thus inevitably includes those with lactose in them. And that doesn't even get near to mentioning their frankly excellent artwork.
So if I can summarise the three points I have warbled aimlessly around -
1. All three ingredients are seen in excellent beers;
2. The inclusion of any or all of them does not by itself render that beer grim;
3. Lactose being in less appealing nineteen twenties/thirties brews has nothing to do with how it fits into more recent and arguably far better products....
Admittedly that means this could have been a far shorter espousal, but its always nice to share a few guessmories, fumblements and thoughtfails when offering an opinion. The end of which is to say that I look forward to continuing to see these and other new or resurrected tastes in beers as time goes on, and to decidedly enjoy them.
Cheers!
Wee Beefy
Showing posts with label Fresh hops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fresh hops. Show all posts
Tuesday, 21 January 2020
Sunday, 21 October 2012
Fresh green hops at the Hop
Evening,
yesterday was the highlight of the Green Hop festival at the Hop, West One, Sheffield. As well as sampling some of the excellent beers on the bar (the beer festival ran from Thursday until today) customers paid a little extra to listen to a talk by Paul Corbett from Charles Faram, Ali Capper from Stocks Farm hops in Worcestershire, and Paul Spencer the Ossett head brewer, about hop plants and specifically British hops.
Its perhaps easy to forget what with endless mention made of Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy, Centennial, Amarillo, Ahtanum and the like that whilst they may not be as high alpha, there are a large number of different hop varieties grown in the UK with a wide range of different subtle flavours and strengths.
To make the most of this zesty tingling celebration, I started with a couple of beers from the bar. Treboom First Draft Houblon Nouveau (Fuggles) was a very strong tasting herbal green hop beer which was a good pint to start on. I also tried halves of Irwell Works Green Manalishi (with a two pint crown), also brewed with Fuggles, and Worth Brewery Sovereign. The Irwell won prizes for probably the best name but was an off mix of dry burnt like hoppinness and an unfortunate caramel flavour which blended unpleasantly, the Worth on the other hand was far better with just enough bite to work.
I also took another pint into the talk itself, my favourite beer of the festival, the Brecon Brewery Green Beacons, brewed using fresh Fuggles from Little Lambswick Farm Tenbury Wells. I was blown away by the pungent herby edge and refreshing bitterness that this beer produced.
The talk was very interesting, although the slides were near impossible to read on the screen high above the stage. Hops, I discovered, are part of the cannabis family, and are mainly grown in the wine growing regions of the world - Germany is the biggest producer but to my surprise South America is also up there. The centre of the hops cone produces lupulin which is a resin, and they (can) grow on hop strings from the ground up in their search for sunlight - hops are very susceptible to sunlight.
We learnt about hop picking, previously very labour intensive, now slightly less so with machinery taking the strain, new dwarf varieties like Pioneer, First Gold and Herald, also how organic hops are grown with the help of flowers planted down the middle of the rows to attract pest eating predators, and how, once picked, the hops need to be quickly dried to a level of just 12% moisture.
Next up was Ali Capper, who with her husband Richard grows hops including Endeavour, Target and Admiral on 100 acres in Worcestershire. Ali went into some detail about the subtleties of aroma and flavour in British hops, and by this stage samples of Great Newsome Autumn Bounty, 4.1% and brewed with green AKA fresh Pilgrim hops, were being passed round. Throughout the talks there was also a table of hops to rub and sniff, aroma and bittering varieties, the pungent smell of which was wafting over us as we sampled the beers. The hops were quite sticky and incredibly flaky, but it was difficult to resist rubbing them in your hands.
There are 1000 hectares of hop growing land in the UK, down from considerably more back in the 1950's. And there are 20 different varieties commercially grown in the UK, although it was pointed out that once you plant a hop seed and grow it from scratch you are in fact growing a new variety. For more info see here.
Other free tasters came from Fernandes (Green Gold, 3.8%, a pleasant but not assertively "green" hoppy ale brewed with Sovereign), Big River Hop3 (2.8%, using East Kent Goldings and Northdown) alas this was a poor brown beer which failed to highlight the hop flavours, and finally the excellent Hop Harvest, a gold coloured 4.0% extremely quaffable beer from Green Jack brewery in Suffolk, hopped and then dry hopped with fresh Bodecia hops, with the addition of field fresh wheat, which I concede I had quite a bit of.
This was largely because once the talk was over and Paul had launched his new range of beers for 2013 we were informed that the 10 pints or so left in each of the polypins was free and needed to be supped. Well, it would have seemed terribly rude to have turned the offer down...
Mind you, a word of caution, 3rd pint measures are incredibly easy to empty! And also make it far harder to keep track of how much you are drinking. There was consternation when a bloke started filling his pint glasses, but only to the half pint line as he said, and actually, it probably meant he consumed less in the end. Meanwhile, myself and Simon from the world of the internet bought another pint from the bar to provide us with a more suitable receptacle for our lovely free beer which seemed not to last as long each time we got some....
In the end, the amazing Brecon brewery Green Beacon proved just too nice and despite being tempted by the Hopstar and the Hop Studio Beerjolaise (plus the Marble Quantum IPA, but that had run out) I thought better of staying for more beer and headed to Betty's for some essential sustenance.
This was a really interesting event, and a great wake up call to brewers and punters alike to the fact that there are British hops to be found and they can go into making really enjoyable beers. Target, Admiral and Pilgrim have a higher alpha content than most British hops so the citrussy dry bitterness of American and New Zealand hops could perhaps be matched, albeit with a heavier load than your average English beer.
I noted with interest the other day that Dark Star had produced an English Hop IPA. That we are in a position where this is considered a niche or experimental beer highlights nicely the extent to which British hops have fallen out of favour (I say British, but in reality no commercial crops are harvested in Scotland, and the most northern hop farm, East Yorkshire Hops, is based near Brough (Humber Bridge) so nothing is harvested north of the Humber).
Lets hope we'll see more British hopped beers, and, crucially, information for punters about which hops are actually used in making their beer.
Wee Beefy
yesterday was the highlight of the Green Hop festival at the Hop, West One, Sheffield. As well as sampling some of the excellent beers on the bar (the beer festival ran from Thursday until today) customers paid a little extra to listen to a talk by Paul Corbett from Charles Faram, Ali Capper from Stocks Farm hops in Worcestershire, and Paul Spencer the Ossett head brewer, about hop plants and specifically British hops.
Its perhaps easy to forget what with endless mention made of Nelson Sauvin, Galaxy, Centennial, Amarillo, Ahtanum and the like that whilst they may not be as high alpha, there are a large number of different hop varieties grown in the UK with a wide range of different subtle flavours and strengths.
To make the most of this zesty tingling celebration, I started with a couple of beers from the bar. Treboom First Draft Houblon Nouveau (Fuggles) was a very strong tasting herbal green hop beer which was a good pint to start on. I also tried halves of Irwell Works Green Manalishi (with a two pint crown), also brewed with Fuggles, and Worth Brewery Sovereign. The Irwell won prizes for probably the best name but was an off mix of dry burnt like hoppinness and an unfortunate caramel flavour which blended unpleasantly, the Worth on the other hand was far better with just enough bite to work.
I also took another pint into the talk itself, my favourite beer of the festival, the Brecon Brewery Green Beacons, brewed using fresh Fuggles from Little Lambswick Farm Tenbury Wells. I was blown away by the pungent herby edge and refreshing bitterness that this beer produced.
The talk was very interesting, although the slides were near impossible to read on the screen high above the stage. Hops, I discovered, are part of the cannabis family, and are mainly grown in the wine growing regions of the world - Germany is the biggest producer but to my surprise South America is also up there. The centre of the hops cone produces lupulin which is a resin, and they (can) grow on hop strings from the ground up in their search for sunlight - hops are very susceptible to sunlight.
We learnt about hop picking, previously very labour intensive, now slightly less so with machinery taking the strain, new dwarf varieties like Pioneer, First Gold and Herald, also how organic hops are grown with the help of flowers planted down the middle of the rows to attract pest eating predators, and how, once picked, the hops need to be quickly dried to a level of just 12% moisture.
Next up was Ali Capper, who with her husband Richard grows hops including Endeavour, Target and Admiral on 100 acres in Worcestershire. Ali went into some detail about the subtleties of aroma and flavour in British hops, and by this stage samples of Great Newsome Autumn Bounty, 4.1% and brewed with green AKA fresh Pilgrim hops, were being passed round. Throughout the talks there was also a table of hops to rub and sniff, aroma and bittering varieties, the pungent smell of which was wafting over us as we sampled the beers. The hops were quite sticky and incredibly flaky, but it was difficult to resist rubbing them in your hands.
There are 1000 hectares of hop growing land in the UK, down from considerably more back in the 1950's. And there are 20 different varieties commercially grown in the UK, although it was pointed out that once you plant a hop seed and grow it from scratch you are in fact growing a new variety. For more info see here.
Other free tasters came from Fernandes (Green Gold, 3.8%, a pleasant but not assertively "green" hoppy ale brewed with Sovereign), Big River Hop3 (2.8%, using East Kent Goldings and Northdown) alas this was a poor brown beer which failed to highlight the hop flavours, and finally the excellent Hop Harvest, a gold coloured 4.0% extremely quaffable beer from Green Jack brewery in Suffolk, hopped and then dry hopped with fresh Bodecia hops, with the addition of field fresh wheat, which I concede I had quite a bit of.
This was largely because once the talk was over and Paul had launched his new range of beers for 2013 we were informed that the 10 pints or so left in each of the polypins was free and needed to be supped. Well, it would have seemed terribly rude to have turned the offer down...
Mind you, a word of caution, 3rd pint measures are incredibly easy to empty! And also make it far harder to keep track of how much you are drinking. There was consternation when a bloke started filling his pint glasses, but only to the half pint line as he said, and actually, it probably meant he consumed less in the end. Meanwhile, myself and Simon from the world of the internet bought another pint from the bar to provide us with a more suitable receptacle for our lovely free beer which seemed not to last as long each time we got some....
In the end, the amazing Brecon brewery Green Beacon proved just too nice and despite being tempted by the Hopstar and the Hop Studio Beerjolaise (plus the Marble Quantum IPA, but that had run out) I thought better of staying for more beer and headed to Betty's for some essential sustenance.
This was a really interesting event, and a great wake up call to brewers and punters alike to the fact that there are British hops to be found and they can go into making really enjoyable beers. Target, Admiral and Pilgrim have a higher alpha content than most British hops so the citrussy dry bitterness of American and New Zealand hops could perhaps be matched, albeit with a heavier load than your average English beer.
I noted with interest the other day that Dark Star had produced an English Hop IPA. That we are in a position where this is considered a niche or experimental beer highlights nicely the extent to which British hops have fallen out of favour (I say British, but in reality no commercial crops are harvested in Scotland, and the most northern hop farm, East Yorkshire Hops, is based near Brough (Humber Bridge) so nothing is harvested north of the Humber).
Lets hope we'll see more British hopped beers, and, crucially, information for punters about which hops are actually used in making their beer.
Wee Beefy
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