The Hop shed Blog
For all things beer, brewing & hops.
The Evolution of The Hop Shed
This month it will be 10 years since we did the first brew in our shiny new brewery in The Old Chicken Shed in Suckley, so it feels like a good time to do a bit of reflection on where our journey started and how far we have come in those 10 years!
Cooking With Beer
When you cook with beer, you aren’t trying to make something that tastes of beer, rather using it as one of many ingredients to give a subtle beery flavour. This is good because a recipe rarely needs a full 500ml bottle of beer so there is usually at least part of a bottle available for sipping as you cook!
State of the Brewing Industry Address
There are a lot of doom and gloom articles in the press at the moment about how bad things are for the brewing industry and hospitality in general. I seem to hear about a new brewery deciding enough is enough almost every week; but there are also success stories of people looking to expand and taking on staff. I think the reasons that some are doing well while others struggle are nuanced – some are beyond anyone’s control, some are industry related, and some due to choices made by individual businesses. I thought I’d talk about what I think some of the issues facing the industry are.
Vegan & Gluten Free Beer
We’re seeing an increasing number of our customers asking if we have any gluten-free beers lately – what was once a niche product is now becoming much more mainstream. All our bottles are in fact now gluten free, which I think is important as it allows more people to drink our beer; but how is this possible when grain plays such an important role in brewing?
Speciality Ingredients
The boundaries of brewing are constantly being pushed, with brewers experimenting far beyond the traditional ingredients of water, malt, hops, and yeast to create unique flavours and aromas. In this month’s blog I’ll be exploring specialty ingredients and celebrating our two seasonal releases that both include something a little different.
Collaboration Brews
A lot of breweries do them, but why go to the effort of a collaboration brew? Well personally one of the things I really like about the brewing industry is that while in another field companies may be keen to protect their trade secrets, brewers are usually quite happy to share advice and ideas to help one another. A collaboration is an opportunity to learn from someone else, share what you know, and maybe come up with something you never would have thought of on your own.
Identifying Off Flavours In Beers
Technically any flavour that’s not meant to be in the beer by design is an off flavour, however it’s usually referring to unpleasant flavours that occur as a by-product of issues with brewing or packaging. Even these however can sometimes be a part of a beers character – if someone drinks a beer regularly and suddenly a flavour gets removed, they might be unhappy even if it’s typically seen as a negative!
How Have Beer Tastes Changed?
Mild beers have a dedicated following, particularly in the West Midlands, but until a recent resurgence spearheaded by groups such as CAMRA, it has been a style out of favour. From one of the most popular varieties in the 1930s, in some places it was very difficult to even find a mild in the latter half of the 20th century. What causes the fortunes of a style to change so drastically?
Brewing With Heritage Ingredients
Our first seasonal release of the year (the first of many exciting ones to come!) is Throwback, a 3.4% pale ale celebrating our British brewing heritage. A history that gave us cask beer, pint measurements, the pub and styles such as IPA and stout is worth celebrating!
Our Favourite Beer Styles
It occurred to me that if you aren’t able to visit the tap room in the week, you may not know who any of us are! To that end I thought I’d pepper in a blog every now and then about us; so you know who’s responsible for making and selling Hop Shed beer. First up – what sort of beer do we enjoy?
What’s the Difference Between Cask and Keg?
When I tell people we make cask beer as opposed to keg, I’m often met with a blank look; and once I’ve explained, the next question is, ‘What difference does it make?
Green Hop Beers 2
As always, the seasonals come thick and fast going into Autumn as it’s harvest time on the farm, which means green hop season, there’s a chance it could be the shortest distance hops have to travel from field to beer in the world!
Meet our Apprentice!
This month, rather than an article I thought I’d introduce our newest team member. Tommy started last week as an apprentice brewer and we be splitting his time between the brewery and bar.
An Introduction to Beer Tasting
What if you do want to go a little bit more in depth on what you can taste in a beer?
Rob’s Brewing Journey
A question I’m often asked by people when they come into the tap room and see me working is: how did I get into brewing?
Craft, Independent – What Does it Mean?
What is an independent brewer? An ethos – a small, hands-on business more focused on quality than churning out volume.
Women in Brewing
International Women's Collaboration Brew Day (IWCBD) occurs this month - an annual event that encourages women around the world to brew together, celebrating their contributions to the industry.
Beer Recipe Design
Once we’ve decided on a style and strength, I usually start by putting together the malt bill.
Speciality Malts: Colour & Flavour
So, what is malt? Malt is the result of (surprise!) a process called malting, which the grain undergoes to prepare it for brewing.
IPA: Craft Beer’s Poster Child
Traditionally, India Pale Ale (so named because it was imported from Britain to India) was a strong, bitter beer, but innovation over the years has subverted almost everything about it in one way or another!
Brewing Waste & Sustainability
One of the most common questions brewers get asked is, ‘What happens to all of the ingredients once you’ve finished with them?’
Green Hop Beers
So, what exactly is a green hop beer? Simply put, it’s a beer containing hops which have come straight from the field without any additional processing, but to understand the difference that makes, we need to dive a little deeper into how hops are normally processed.
Beer Judging
Obviously, every time I design & produce a recipe, I’m trying to make the best beer I possibly can, but what exactly does best mean?
Lager, Ale, Beer … What Do They Mean?
When it comes to beer categories, the most important thing is the consumer knows what they’ll be getting. When someone sees lager, they’ll probably expect cold and fizzy –
Low Alcohol Beers – Hip Hop 3.4% Session Pale Ale
Over the last couple of decades average beer strength has been creeping higher, however recently lower and alcohol free beers have become much more popular. This is partly due to changing habits of drinkers and partly because they’ve got much better!
Hop Breeding & Provenance
Find out more about British hop breeding & provenance and which hop we selected for our next Seasonal Beer, Headless Chicken, a single hopped IPA.
What is a Wheat Beer?
Find out more about our seasonal beer - Hop 'Til You Drop, a 5.0% American Style Wheat Beer.