Enter A Bushel of Hops Spring draw and win a pack of hops. As thoughts turn to Spring, it’s perfect time to brew that beer to enjoy drinking later this summer and the draw is free to enter.
We also wanted to celebrate that Hops have been selected by the International Herb Association as their specially chosen herb for 2018.
Whatever your taste, maybe a sharp hoppy pale ale style, a barley wine or a complex sour, we are offering 1 x100gm pack of our UK Chinook hops for this prize. Chinook give a pronounced citrus, pine, grapefruit and light floral flavours to the beer. And there’s more…….there will be an additional bonus prize offered to the winner!
For this Spring competition to win our 100gm pack of UK Chinook hops, there is no obligation to buy anything. Just answer the following question correctly to have your name go forward into the draw, which will be drawn on Sunday 7th May.
NB This competition is open UK residents only
Name the other American hop variety we growing here at A Bushel of Hops – Fill in the Form Below & Submit – Good Luck!
100g of Chinook Hops – A Bushel of Hops Free Spring Draw Prize
Side gussets give them extra capacity and as a hop grower, they definitely need to be strong enough to carry a few beer bottles! I lined one of the hop fabric bags, this seemed a good idea to try out, especially as I put in a small pocket to hold a phone or purse, but other than that a lining is not essential. It is very easy to vary the design with different fabrics according to how much of each you have, it is very relaxed. A patchwork of bits would work just as well but then I would recommend stitching in a lining just to be sure it up to the task. Whatever design they fold up neatly in your handbag.
seams a neat finish but for practical reasons too. French seams are not difficult to sew, they make the seams stronger and also prevent them from fraying when the bags are washed. Mine seem to get grubby quite quickly but that could be because I now leave them in the back of the car!
is determined by tradition and how the hop gardens were originally planted. For Umbrella Work each hop plant is 6’6” apart in the row, with each row also spaced the same 6’ 6” apart. Oddly that’s 2 metres but the 6’6” measurements were used long before England even thought about going metric. With Worcester work the hops hills are at 3’ spacing and this hop stringing method does not need 
Because coir stretches slightly when damp, the balls of string are soaked overnight before being used. If the coir string was put on dry it would stretch when it rained, especially as the bines become heavier as they mature. That is just a practical point. Equipment required is minimal – a long bamboo cane called a goad (stringing monkey to some) and a bag to hold a ball of string with a wide strap to go over one shoulder. 
The strap can be padded across the shoulder for comfort. These bags are generally made using a hessian sack adapted accordingly as to what each stringer finds most comfortable. The string is tensioned as the string runs through the hands so gloves are also required.
Each stringer has a ‘cant’ or section to string. It is normally the men that have traditionally done this job. The stringer will first walk over the hops hills in his cant (or allocated area) first, pulling up any screw pegs which are bent over and replacing any that are missing. Once all the screw pegs are checked he is ready to start.
I usually make two batches of marmalade one a dark Oxford style sometimes with a little whiskey added and the other batch I follow a bright fresher recipe, putting the saved juice in just as the marmalade reaches setting point. That was a very satisfying time spent and I had something to show for the time at the end of the afternoon. And just as Lawrence mentions, yes the floor did need a scrub too. The boiling marmalade thoroughly splattered stove and floor.
Different varieties of hops will vary, some offer a dense froth of small hops when dried, these often compliment the atmosphere in a cosy country pub. Other bines will grow in fine neat lengths with larger cones ideal along the top of a welsh dresser or for a beam in a low ceiling
cottage. Some varieties have red stems and others green stems, Individual hop flowers can be tight like a Brussels sprout, some dark green, others soft and light green, and some even have turned up tips like tiny Chinese lanterns.
The taste…mmmm…..well it is more the timing of the tastes. Definitely whisky, the whisky is first with the sweetness like a hot toddy, it takes the heat out of the whisky but you also know something is different. It is then that the hoppy flavour comes through. It is a pleasant hint of bitterness, rather like a good cheese straw with that pinch of cayenne – good but it leaves you feeling you would like to have another just to make sure it really was that good!
Encouraged by this whisky success there was 1/4 bottle gin in the cupboard much too tempting to be left here just begging to be used. I popped this iam jar with 2 teaspoons white sugar and eyed up an an equivalent amount of fresh Cascade hops as I used for the whisky. This time I left it for only 1 day then strained the gin off the hops. The resulting gin is now a beautiful pale Chartreus green. So again I need to try it out in different ways although this time there is not so much gin to play with. Perhaps add some citrus as recommended by 
