Top of the Hops

When I saw about this beer (brewed with 2012 different hop varieties) over at Pencil and Spoon I was certainly interested but I didn't suppose I'd ever see it. So I was pleasantly surprised when I saw it on the bar when I next called in at the Sovs.

As regular readers of my blog will know, because hops are normally grown from cuttings every individual plant grown from seed counts as a new variety. At the breeding programme of Wye Hops Ltd they grow around 1000 new plants each year. Most of these plants won't be developed further so their hops will never get to be used to make beer...until now.

The Great Yorkshire Brewery have taken from from 2012 of these plants and made a beer with them. As you'd expect it's pale and hoppy but I was pleasantly surprised to find out it's actually balanced with a bit of malty body. Obviously there's no chance of working out what any of the individual hop varieties adds to the beer (and most will soon be grubbed up anyway) but there's definitely a touch of citrus about it. I liked this beer, so I had a some more, just a couple mind.