Beer: Taste The Evolution In 50 Styles by Natalya Watson

Author:Natalya Watson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Octopus
Published: 2020-02-12T00:00:00+00:00

HOPS FLOURISH IN ENGLAND

1500s–1800s

While there is archaeological evidence that hops have had a presence in England for centuries, it’s thought the first hopped beer wasn’t brewed in England until the 1400s. Even still, those hops were imported.

Hopped “beer” was largely considered foreign, as English drinkers stuck to their traditional unhopped “ale” – a distinction that lived on in English drinking culture for another few centuries. (It’s worth noting that just because ale was unhopped doesn’t necessarily mean it was bittered with gruit; most English ales were brewed with three ingredients only – malt, water and yeast.)

By 1703, ale was said to be brewed with a small quantity of hops but was still distinguished from beer, which was highly hopped. (The distinction finally disappeared by the 1800s).

So how did hops eventually catch on? For several practical reasons. Prior to hops being introduced as a preservative, brewers would rely on alcohol to help keep their beers from spoiling. This meant high quantities of malt were needed, as malt provides the sugar that yeast ferments into alcohol (and carbon dioxide).

Beer brewers, those using hops, only needed to use about half as much malt as ale brewers. And what they were saving on malt allowed them to justify the cost of hops and the fuel needed for their long boil.

English hop cultivation started in the early 1500s in Kent, southeast England, with hops brought over from Flanders. But these Flemish Red Bines didn’t fare so well in English soil.

Instead, new varietals were introduced by taking cuttings of European plants or through natural cross-pollination. By the end of the 1700s, several varietals of English hops had come to be known – from Canterbury Whitebines and Farnham Whitebines to Goldings.

While Canterbury and Farnham Whitebines took after the German and Czech tradition of naming the hops after the regions from which they hail, Goldings have a different story.

Goldings are said to be named after one Mr Golding who spotted a superior hop plant (now thought to be a Canterbury Whitebine) growing nearby, cut it and propagated it – a process today known as clonal selection.

By the beginning of the 1800s, the hop was distributed across all parts of England, helping Goldings to become one of England’s defining hop varietals.

The other defining English hop varietal, Fuggle, was thought to have grown from a seed dropped from a hop-picker’s basket while eating lunch. It was said the hop was then named after Mr Fuggle, who, years later, cultivated the hop for sale. But the story appears too good to be true, as doubt was cast on it decades later.

While its origins are unclear, what is clear is Fuggle’s impact on the British brewing industry. (Fuggle accounted for 78% of English hop acreage in 1949, before it was nearly wiped out by disease.)

So what makes these two varietals so special? They’re most prized for their aroma and flavour, as both are relatively low in alpha acid content (around 3–4%). Goldings are celebrated for their floral, slightly spicy and honey-like aromas, while Fuggle contributes minty, grassy and earthy notes.

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