Homebrewers Help Preserve Heritage Hops

Homebrewers help preserve Heritage Hops and it’s all down to the old adage of either ‘use it or loose it’. Any rare breeds are best preserved by actually using them, to have no practical use puts them in danger of petering out until finally becoming defunct; likewise with Heritage Hops. I wanted to grow British Heritage Hop varieties but the reality is that homebrewers help preserve heritage hops and they are doing this simply by using these hops. It’s respect for the little brewers.

Home brewing has sometimes suffered a bad reputation, I certainly remember some pretty grim results made during our teenage experiments. However today there is a large community of very serious home brewers who are brewing some seriously good beers. It’s worth remembering that many of our top national brewers started out home brewing.

A Bushel of Hops launched in 2015 specifically to grow hops for home brewers; in reality the seed for this idea had lain dormant for many many years. But as I wanted to grow limited amounts of several different hop varieties, in particular the older British heritage ones, small brewers were natural partners for this venture. I was reliably informed that being such a small grower I would be able to do things that larger growers could not and wouldn’t want to do. There is a lot more fiddling around at harvest with small amounts and that is very time consuming. Also labelling takes on a whole new priority, labels are the only thing that make me obsessively neurotic!

I don’t want to brew but I love to grow hops, my the main objective is to keep these varieties available for today’s brewers to try, our relationship is symbiotic. My other objective was to supply fresh hops from a current season only and by supplying direct from hop garden to brewer the provenance is guaranteed. I know each hop variety and exactly where they are grown. Each year some varieties do well, for no particular reason they will shine above a variety growing right next to them! Not unlike different fruit trees which crop variably over different years within a mixed orchard. I try to involve home brewers in this side of growing hops so they know which varieties have done better and look good or which have faired not quite so well and why. It could perhaps be wind damage which has become more common in recent years, I feel it is part of the provenance and their participation when they purchase hops.

A Bushel of Hops evolved, there was never a set business plan so along the way so I have been on a journey too. One of the greatest pleasures each year is receiving feedback, beers that have been outstanding and some styles that have not worked out as well with a particular. I think this information sharing is important as some these hop varieties have not been brewed for many decades and as these heritage varieties are discussed in brewing clubs, on Forums they become better known. Nonsuch is a good example, this has had several very positive comments and one from far afield, on Jim’s Forum. This is precisely how homebrewers help preserve heritage hops.

If your partner is a brewer and brewing is not your thing, you may fancy swimming in beer at the 700 year old Starkenberger Brewery in Austria once Covid restrictions are relaxed! Cleopatra bathed in sour milk, some folk had even more bizarre habits! if you choose a warm beer tub, probably best not to drive afterwards!

Natural Dyeing with Hops

I have always loved the colours that you get with natural dyes, their soft watercolour shades are so very British.

I have been wanting to ‘have a go’ for some while and obviously wanting to experiment dyeing with hops. When I was searching the internet for information about natural dyeing before hop picking I came across this lovely site . (Donna and Bill of the hops soda success) and was even more determined to have a go asap.
Along with different weights of linen and cotton fabrics, I also used some pieces of silk cut from an old shirt. Gathering up this mixed bags of scraps, I used the few blackberries I had reserved in the freezer, dried hops and some local walnut husks. All set, gloves on and the experiment is ready to begin.
My last efforts had resulted in insipid, wishy washy colours, that literally came out in the first wash, but this time I was using different mordants and used an old aluminium saucepan for the boil. Apparently this is better than stainless steel for some reason which I do not know, but handy anyway as I had this redundant old aluminium saucepan with a good solid base. The mordants I tried this time were vinegar, baking powder and alum.
First I simmered 3 pieces of silk with red onion skins, then divided it up and put each in a separate batch with a different mordant, vinegar, baking powder and alum, after each boil I put the mix into a separate polythene bag and left them all for 2 days.
Next I dissolved alum into some water, added 2 handfuls of dried hops boiled them for an hour with the fabrics all mixed in together, then left the whole caboodle for 24 hours to soak outside covered with a lid. I have yet to try vinegar as a mordant with hops and possible baking powder. Not knowing what end results will be is the best bit but not the waiting. Waiting is trickiest, it is hard to be patient but once the soaking time was over, I rinsed them all, then gave them a gentle wash with detergent and hung them out to dry.

Walnut husks produce a brown dye which does not require a mordant to fix the colour into the cloth. That makes it easy, the whole lot was boiled and left it to soak overnight. It is a shame that dyeing with hops makes a yellow dye as I am not keen on using yellow but a little can enhance other colours in a project. Next spring I will try hop shoots and leaves, they are supposed to produce a brownish red dye.

The dyeing results from this first session are all shown. I was fascinated to see the differences in colour between the red onion skin dye lots using the 3 different mordants, that was a hey presto moment when they were ironed to fully reveal the colours.

So what are they for? Well they are all intended for a special project that I am doing with my daughter in Australia. Since she emigrated to Australia with her husband 15 years ago, we have made 4 friendship quilts. Over the months we send and swap little pieces of fabrics in letters, but this time we have decided on a smaller project in the form of a scrap book.
other natural dyeing links:-
http://echoviewnc.com/natural-yarn-dyeing-experiments/
http://www.indiaflint.com/

Thumb’s up for the ‘brew in a bag’ method for an easy home beer making process

I am now on dangerous ground, as the saying warns ‘Fool’s rush in where Angels fear to tread’, so this Angel is treading very very carefully! I fully respect that everyone has their own special method to produce their perfect craft beer at home and I am certainly not giving any advise but will only explain my husband’s beer making process and show you the very basic kit which he uses, should anyone be interested.

My husband is a home brewer, but being a farmer first and foremost with the ‘make, mend and do’ attitude firmly ingrained into his psyche, whilst he has often looked longingly at the Braumeister style apparatus, he remains stoically loyal to the very basic beer brewing kit he already has. You don’t need any fancy brew kit to get going with the beer making process. The main components of his home brew hardware did not start out life as beer brewing equipment at all, but has been reinvented for purpose and he would be loathe to change it – it works well, therefore he reckons if it’s not broken, don’t fix it!

His beer brewing equipment is –

2 stainless steel redundant ex milk buckets, (one for the brewing and one for the fermentation vessel)
An old tin bath, which is topped off by an even more ancient gas stove that lives outside (under cover of course) A practical plus for this stove is that the steam during the hour long rolling boil, all happens outdoors and not in the kitchen. Another plus for his beer brewing equipment is the simplicity of cleaning it and how little equipment there actually is to clean.
A glass hydrometer was a survivor from years ago, during our brief and very variable sortie into wine making
A stainless steel strainer we already had. This strainer has now been requisitioned by the brewing department.

New kit purchased was:

a thermometer
tubing for syphoning
nylon voile for the bags. Bags were actually made from fine mesh nylon curtaining which is perfect. They are best sewn up to approximately to fit the container being used. You just need to make sure the bag is kept off the bottom of your vessel whilst the heat is on, an upturned colander or similar will suffice.

He brews 10 litres at a time rather than what I understand to be the more normal 20 litres. The theory behind these 10 litre brews is that the buckets are easier to lift and recipes can be tweaked or a completely different home beer recipe tried without any concern that you may have lot of beer you do not like. This has only been the case once so far, he over-hopped a brew that made American IPA’s look insipid! I thought my hair would curl, but it did make an excellent shandy.

When he first came across about the Australian ‘brew in a bag’ method he thought it sounded rather corny, but after trying it, this method is no gimmick. The basic rules for all brewing are simple – have scrupulously clean equipment and bottles, good quality ingredients, accurate temperatures, accurate timings and in this case careful removal of the bag of malt so it can drain naturally. Resisting the temptation to give it a squeeze.

I am sure everyone has their own very personal preferences to technique, hence my caution writing about this but if the proof of the pudding is in the eating (or drinking in this case!) then this method has a full 10/10 and big thumbs up from me.

I am shortly to have a tentative foray in to the world of brewing but using hops and no malt! But that will be for another time.

Quick guide to the easy home beer making process ‘BREW IN A BAG’ method with one of my husbands recipes

NB -To end up with approx 9 litres to bottle you need to start with 13 litres of water

Ingredients for his American Light Bitter

1.5kg pale malted barley

75gm crystal malt

130gm Polenta

2ozs Goldings hops

1oz Cascade hops

Halfera packet of S-05 yeast

Method

*Bring 13 litres water to 67C

*Put malts and polenta in the voile bag, gently lower and prod carefully down to wet grains (you do not want to introduce any air at this point) Tie top of bag securely to top of the brew vessel. Steep for 70 mins at 67C. You can turn off heat if needs be to keep temperature level.

*Remove bag of malt and allow to drain into the vessel. Do not squeeze, it is very tempting! but DON’T DO IT!

*Bring wort to a rolling boil for 1 hour in total, adding 1oz golding hops immediately boiling point is reached.

After 30 mins add 1oz Goldings hops then for the last 10 mins of the boil add the Cascade hops.

* Strain hops from wort and immediately cool as quickly as possible to 25C. The old tin bath is perfect here. To help wort oxygenate at this stage the wort can be strained to and fro between both stainless steel vessels a few times. This also helps speed the cooling.

*Once at 25C stand vessel in warm environment to ferment and add yeast. My husband uses the open top method with this vessel, covering it with a nylon cover then a clean cotton cloth.

Bottled when hydrometer shows it is ready or after about 10 days.

If you are interested to see this home beer making process of ‘brewing in a bag’ this lady has it down to a fine art.

Hops in a Trug – Our New Hop Fabric Range

Here are some of the first pieces of my ‘hoppy’ fabric which have arrived hot off the Woven Monkey printer, so exciting to see them for real, it has been quite a journey.

I will have time to have a play now before hop picking starts.

They are in a sussex trug, these traditional baskets are not only beautiful but amazingly adaptable and strong.

Trug made by local craftsman Richard Bingham.

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