THROWBACK – 3.4% PALE ALE
Here at The Hop Shed, we’re beginning the new year with a nod to the past. 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!
The star of Throwback is the base malt “Chevallier”. This is what’s known as a heritage malt – a special group of historical grains prized for their flavour, genetics and rich brewing history. Chevallier is a landrace strain of barley, meaning that it has adapted and developed naturally over a long period of time with minimal human intervention, making it uniquely adapted to its local climate, soil and environment.
Chevallier was so well-suited for malting and brewing that it became the first barley ever selected specifically for this purpose. From the early 19th century, it was the dominant barley variety used for brewing for well over a century, being propagated and grown all over the world – if you were transported back to Victorian England and ordered a pint, there’s a very good chance that it would have been brewed using Chevallier.
These days, Chevallier is considered more of a niche malt, but this is due to lower yields compared to modern barley varieties – not because of flavour. In fact, Chevallier and other heritage malts are renowned for their depth and richness, with Chevallier itself known for a distinctive marmalade character.
Many heritage malts are still produced using traditional floor-malting methods, where the grain is spread across large floors and turned by hand rather than by mechanical means. While this might sound like tradition for tradition’s sake, blind tasting studies have shown that while more costly, people can detect – and prefer – the flavour differences these methods produce.
To complement this heritage malt, we have selected two traditional landrace varieties of hops: Fuggles and Goldings. At The Hop Shed, we love to celebrate British hops, and these two are arguably the most iconic of the lot. Fuggles doesn’t feature in any other beer in our range, so Throwback offers the opportunity to experience its earthy aroma and gentle bitterness; Goldings is another classic English hop variety, prized for its smooth, honey-like sweetness. Together, they create a subtle, balanced profile that lets the malt shine.
While these hops once dominated British brewing, newly developed hop varieties have been bred to have a higher bittering potential and more intense fruity flavours, making these traditional hops less economical and less fashionable. For example, our Java Pale features three British hop varieties that were only commercially released in 2014, 2016 and 2019. By contrast, Goldings and Fuggles have been around for hundreds of years. They’ve stood the test of time and are still used today for their flavour, consistency and deep-rooted tradition – making them the perfect choice for Throwback!
