A site where a man with far too much interest in beer gets to write about it.
Friday 18 November 2011
The plot thickens in Farnham
I was a very interesting meeting put on by Simply Hops last night. Amongst the wealth of information I got from the gathered hop experts was the fact Farnham hops are still grown today as Mathon Goldings. More details when I get a moment.
Hmmm - I'd need to know the source for that claim. Mathon hops are named after a hamlet near Malvern on the Worcestershire/Herefordshire border, which is a long way from Farnham. The old Hop Marketing Board classified Mathons as a variety of Golding. George Clinch in 1919 describes it as closely resembling the Bramling (a type of Golding from the Kentish village of the same name), and “principally” grown in the counties of Worcester and Hereford, being “certainly suited to their soils”. Its original name, from at least 1799, seems to have been the Mathon-white, and in 1822 the “Mathon white” was described in The Monthly Gazette of Health as “superior to any other. It not only affords a more pleasant and mild bitter, but a much more pleasant aroma than the Kent or any other Worcestershire hop.” My personal suspicion is that the Mathon white was, like the Golding, descended from the Canterbury White-bine, and that accounts for the Mathon being put later in the Goldings family. But I've never seen anything that links the Mathon to the Farnham hop.
I had hoped to get my full account posted last night but the internet broke. All will be revealed at lunch time hopefully. You'll be pleased to hear you're quite right about Mathon goldings and Canterbury White Bines being the same plant though.
Hmmm - I'd need to know the source for that claim. Mathon hops are named after a hamlet near Malvern on the Worcestershire/Herefordshire border, which is a long way from Farnham. The old Hop Marketing Board classified Mathons as a variety of Golding. George Clinch in 1919 describes it as closely resembling the Bramling (a type of Golding from the Kentish village of the same name), and “principally” grown in the counties of Worcester and Hereford, being “certainly suited to their soils”. Its original name, from at least 1799, seems to have been the Mathon-white, and in 1822 the “Mathon white” was described in The Monthly Gazette of Health as “superior to any other. It not only affords a more pleasant and mild bitter, but a much more pleasant aroma than the Kent or any other Worcestershire hop.” My personal suspicion is that the Mathon white was, like the Golding, descended from the Canterbury White-bine, and that accounts for the Mathon being put later in the Goldings family. But I've never seen anything that links the Mathon to the Farnham hop.
ReplyDeleteI had hoped to get my full account posted last night but the internet broke. All will be revealed at lunch time hopefully. You'll be pleased to hear you're quite right about Mathon goldings and Canterbury White Bines being the same plant though.
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