Ross Hukins’s family have been growing hops in the same Kent fields for more than a 100 years.
Before industrialisation, hops were grown across the UK but the Weald region’s warm summers and type of soil made it the country’s top hop spot. And the many varieties farmed for brewing beer are often grown using sustainable methods – during the summer in Weald, for example, a nearby river is used to water the plants after winter rain has been pumped in from ditches.
“The flavours you get from our varieties,” says Hukins, “are New World flavours. Cascade hops are citrus, Ernest [hops give] peach and apricot. More traditional varieties give a more earthy minty flavour – Challenger give you tobacco, cedar. Goldings – grapefruit, lychee. They’re all different.”
It’s rarely considered when buying a local pint, but how sustainable is hop use in the UK? The answer: not very – 90% of hops used to brew British beer are imported. A lot of UK breweries in the UK import hops from countries such as the US or New Zealand because of their potency and to deliver those New World flavours.
According to Hukins, New World hops absorb more UV light which increases the plant’s production of myrcene – a chemical aroma that makes the flavour profile more ‘hoppy’ – and, consequently these varieties deliver a stronger intensity of flavour.
“UK hops are a subtle version,” he says. “We’re encouraging breweries to look again at British hops – intense hops have a home but there are more varieties coming out in the UK and it’s obviously more sustainable to use British hops.”
But does the sustainable process that Hukins has put in place end after the hops are picked and arrive at breweries? Brewing also uses a large amount of water and when it comes to the addition of hops, their contribution is short-lived: dipped in quickly to impart flavour and then discarded.
“Every time we would process a beer,” says Freddie Cox, head of production at Gipsy Hill Brewing Company, “we would say these [used] hops smell amazing! They smell like a freshly opened bag of hops. There must be something we can do with this.”
The answer it seems would be to reuse hops after one brew to realise another different beer, a technique that Josh Chapman, co-founder and brewer of the Upweller Beer Company in Virginia’s Eastern Shore in the US, is championing.
Chapman used to be at the helm of Black Narrows Brewing of Chincoteague Island (which closed earlier this year) where he brewed with hops grown 50 miles down the shore from Chincoteague Island. He also brewed with oyster liquor from nearby oyster shucking factories that would otherwise pour the water inside a shell away.
“The responsibility of a brewer is similar to a chef’s,” says Chapman, “in that we have to get the most out of our ingredients as it’s good for our bottom line and because it’s ethically a great thing to do.[Reusing hops] honours the farmer, honours the consumer and honours the planet.”
Chapman describes not reusing the hops as like roasting a chicken and throwing the carcass away instead of making a delicious stock or soup. He plans to make re-using hops an integral part of the new brewery after a successful run of re-using hops from a Double IPA (a very hoppy beer) to then make a different beer – a full-flavour pale ale.
And from the US, back to the UK, where Gipsy Hill Brewing Company‘s Freddie Cox is on a mission to see if they could brew a carbon negative beer. This goal led Gypsy Hill to use wild-farmed barley as well as working with a carbon accounting team to be transparent with data published and claims made.
The initial problem was that used hops had moderately oxidised which meant if they were to be dropped into another brew late in the process (this part of the process is often called dry hopping) then oxygen ingress could negatively affect the flavour and colour of beer.
The dry hopping stage extracts a lot of the hop flavour profile, but Cox says that by adding the hops in earlier, you could also increase the beer’s bitterness. He then discovered that adding in hops closer to the end of the boil (whirlpool), when the wort is at its hottest (i.e. wet hopping), could add to the beer’s aroma.
“We had never heard of anyone using it for late-stage whirlpool and aroma,” says Cox. “So that’s what we started doing.”
Initially Cox replicated the amount of pelletised dry hops that he used during the whirlpool stage but the used hops weren’t giving the same flavour profile and they needed to be sent to hop producers who had large laboratories for tests.
The results showed that the hops had a surprisingly high 40% of the original oils and, therefore, the brewery could then work out the specific quantity of used hops to brew with. The result was Swell which has become the bestselling lager the brewery makes – its citrusy, dry flavour a hit with drinkers.
But at the end of the day – and brewing process of any beer – a lot of the used ingredients still have to be disposed of. Spent grain can be used for animal food especially because it can’t be drained – but what happens to hops?
According to Josh, spent yeast and hop matter is – unfortunately – very tempting for time-pushed brewers to throw down the drain, which is a waste for many reasons. Not least because hop matter has a high nitrogen content so is well-suited for reuse in agriculture or gardening. Josh, therefore, urges breweries to form partnerships with nearby nurseries.
This means that the hops could be used twice in brewing and then again, in gardening. “It takes a little extra effort from a brewer,” he says, “but it’s plant matter and it has a benefit.”
It’s beneficial to the planet but also to the brewer – many of whom have found that narratives around sustainability, local ingredients and pints with lower carbon footprints, are now factors drinkers consider when at the pub, taproom or bottle shop.
“It’s the reason why Swell is our core-range lager,” agrees Cox. “Our biggest lager purchasers like the story behind it and the provenance of it. It’s super important for our customers now.”
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