Green Hop Beers: 4.0% Golden Ale & 3.8% Pale Ale
At this time of year things get busy on the farm, because it’s time for the hop harvest! The plants begin growing in March, reach their maximum height by midsummers day, and depending on the variety will be ready to harvest from the last week in August to the end of September. Farmers will try to plant a range of varieties that are ready to harvest at different times, so the work can be spread out over the month.
After the success of our two green hop beers last year, we’ll be doing the same again this time around – releasing a golden ale in the middle of September using early harvested hops, and a pale ale towards the end of the month using a later maturing variety. The recipes for both will be fairly straightforward so as not to overshadow the hop character, which should of course be the star of the show! I was so impressed with the orange-y notes in the Goldings last year that our golden ale will be the same again; we’re not sure what the second beer will be yet – it depends what they’re harvesting on the day!
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.
At harvest time, the bine (different to a vine because it doesn’t have tendrils) and string it grows around are cut at the top and bottom, and collected. These are then put through a sorting machine, which uses a series of conveyors and screens to sort the plant matter by weight and remove as much of the leaves, bine & string from the hop cones as possible. Typically, at this stage the hop cones would be dried, reducing their moisture content significantly, before being sent for further processing and packaging in a way that will maintain freshness for as long as possible.
When using green hops however, they are used ‘wet’, which means they are added to the brew without any drying. With a high moisture content, the hops would quickly rot, which means green hop beers can only be brewed during the harvest season. The proposed benefit to using green hops however comes from the essential oils – the flavour active component. As the essential oils are very volatile, even gentle heating could cause some loss, which means potentially using green hops will maximise the amount of flavour you can get into the beer. As the hops still contain water weight, we have to use six to seven times the mass we would in a normal brew – which can mean adding up to 50kg!
Green hop beers are a great way to see what character a specific hop adds to beer in its purest form; hopefully you’ll enjoy this year’s versions, while also learning something about the profile that a specific hop can bring as well.
