Thursday 6 October 2011

Wild, wild hops

It has its advantages living in a hop growing area. As well as being able to do the fresh hop beer we've got hold of some hops that a retired farmer has grown from a wild plant he liked the look of.



We must score points for being innovative craft brewers for using a new hop variety. But on the other hand the hops are apparently most like fuggles, a very traditional variety.

Still, as brewing has such a long history it's very hard to do anything that really is innovative. As the fuggle also came from a local wild hop our innovation is merely redoing something that was done long ago. Perhaps it's as the venerable Jorge (or was it Ron Pattinson?) put it: "there is no progress in the history of brewing, merely continuous and sublime recapitulation".



3 comments:

  1. Hey - fresh hops are fresh hops! I'd never turn down a 'lowly fuggle'.

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  2. I had the opportunity to visit the Rogue hop farm earlier this year. As a result I have a much better appreciation for their G.Y.O Chatoe line of beers. Fresh hop and the "brew local" philosophy, adopted great breweries such as Rogue, Sierra Nevada and Ipswich, clearly exemplify the innovation and passion of Craft Brewers.
    Cheers!
    Beerattitude
    www.beerattitude.blogspot.com

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  3. We made a test batch with the wild hops and they're really good. We're going to have to make some more...

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