On Thursday the lovely Lisa and I went on a Brewery History Society trip to the National Scientific Hop Collection and China Farm near Canterbury where it's hosted. Farm owner Tony Redsell welcomed us and Peter Darby of Wye Hops Ltd was there to guide us round, explain the hop breeding programme and show us the historic hop collection.
 |
| Tony Redsell talking to Peter Darby |
 |
| These are one of the Goldings varieties |
 |
| Hops about to be stripped from the bines |
 |
| The cluster buster |
 |
| Leaves are lifted up but cones roll back |
 |
| Kiln being filled |
 |
| Dried hops going to be packaged |
 |
| Up to the top of the press |
 |
| About to be pressed |
 |
| Being pressed into 50-60kg bales |
The building where the hops were processed was the equivalent of eight traditional
oast houses and could be run by only two people. From the 1950s the hop industry became increasingly mechanised, which lead to the ending of production of many old varieties. Only
Goldings, Fuggles and
Whitbread's Golding Variety cones rolled well enough for mechanical separation from leaves.
I'll be back to burble about the breeding later.
lovely green colours. What are this years yields like?
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard a report yet, some hops were looking great but there may well be a Bramling Cross shortage.
ReplyDeleteAlways wondered how the professionals did it. How long does it take to dry the hops in that sort of quantity?
ReplyDeleteThey were dried overnight. Fans were going throughout the day to stop the hops 'sweating' but I think the actual drying was done in five hours.
ReplyDelete