A Modern Herbal | Hops ---Cultivation--- It has been estimated that in pre-war times 70 per cent of the Hops used in brewing was home produce and 30 per cent imported, chiefly from the United States and Germany. Hops are also grown in France, South Russia, Australia and New Zealand. The cultivation of Hops in the British Islands is restricted to England, where it is practically confined to half a dozen counties: four in the south-east (Kent, Surrey, Hants and Sussex) and two in the western Midland counties (Worcester and Hereford). As a rule, over 60 per cent of home-grown Hops are grown in Kent. In the years 1898-1907, the average annual acreage of Hops under cultivation in this country was 48,841 acres (being 51,127 acres in 1901 and 33,763 acres in 1907). The average annual yield per acre for these ten years was 8.84 cwt., and the average annual home produce 434,567 cwt.

In 1907 Kent had under cultivation 28,169 acres; Hereford, 6,143; Sussex, 4,243; Worcester, 3,622; Hants; 1,842, and Surrey, 744. Hops require deep, rich soil, on dry bottom, with south or south-west aspect - free circulation of air is necessary. The ground is generally well pulverized and manured to considerable depth by plough or spade before planting. Hops in Kent are usually planted in October or November, the plants being placed 6 feet apart each way, thus giving 1,210 plant centres to the acre. The plants are usually set in 'stools' of from three to five, a few inches apart. They are obtained from cuttings or suckers taken from the healthiest old shoots, which are usually planted out closely in nursery lines a year before being planted permanently. Very little growth takes place the first year. Some planters still grow potatoes or mangels between the rows of the first year, as the plants do not bear much till the second year, but this is considered a mistake, as it exhausts the ground.

As a rule, the plants are not full bearing till the third year, when four to six poles from 14 to 18 feet long are required for each stool. The most used timber for Hop poles is Spanish Chestnut, which is largely grown for this special purpose in coppices in hopgrowing districts. Ash is also used. The poles are set to the plants in spring, before growth commences, and removed when the latter are cut away in autumn. The plants are then dressed with manure, and the soil between the stools stirred lightly. Much of the Hop-land is ploughed between the rows, but it is better to dig Hop-land if possible, the tool used being the Kent spud. Experiments in Hop manuring have been conducted in connexion with the South-East Agricultural College, Wye. The main results have been to demonstrate the necessity of a liberal supply of phosphates, if the full benefit is to be reaped from application of nitrogenous manures. Manuring is applied in the winter and dug or ploughed in. London manure from stables is used to an enormous extent. Rags, fur waste, sprats, wood waste and shoddy, are also put on in the winter.

In the summer, rape dust, guano, nitrate of soda and various patent Hopmanures are chopped in with the Canterbury hoe. Fish guano, or desiccated fish, is largely used; it is very stimulating and more lasting than some of the forcing manures. Hop-land is ploughed or dug between November and March. After this, the plants are trimmed or 'dressed,' i.e. all the old bine ends are cut off with a sharp curved Hop-knife and the plant centres kept level with the ground. Much attention is required to keep the bines in their places on the poles, strings or wire during the summer. The Hop cones - or strobiles - are fit to gather when a brown-amber colour and of a firm consistence. The stalks are then cut at the base and removed with the poles and laid horizontally on frames of wood, to each of which is attached a large sack into which the Hops fall as they are picked. When picked, the Hops are at once taken to the kiln or oast-house, and dried, as they are liable to become spoiled in a few hours, especially when picked moist.

During the process of drying which is carried out in a similar manner to the drying of malt, great care is required to prevent overheating, by which the essential oil would become volatilized. The Hops are spread 8 to 12 inches deep, on hair-cloth, also being sometimes exposed to fumes of burning sulphur. When the ends of the stalks shrivel, they are removed from the kiln and laid on a woodenfloor till quite cool, when they are packed in bales, known as 'pockets.' The difficulties attendant upon the cultivation of Hops have been aggravated and the expenses increased in recent years by the regularly recurring attacks of aphis blight, due to the insect Aphis humuli, which make it necessary to spray or syringe every Hop plant, every branch and leaf with insecticidal solutions three or four times and sometimes more often in each season. Quassia and soft soap solutions are usually employed: the soft soap serves as a vehicle to retain the bitterness of the quassia upon the bines and leaves, making them repulsive to the Aphides, which are thus starved out. The solution is made from 4 to 8 lb.

of quassia chips to 100 gallons of water. Another pest, the Red Spider (Tetranychus telarius) is most destructive in very hot summers. Congregating on the under surfaces of the leaves, the red spiders exhaust the sap and cause the leaves to fall. The Quassia and Soft Soap Hopwash is of little avail in the case of Red Spider. Some success has attended the use of a solution consisting of 8 to 10 lb. of soft soap to 100 gallons of water, with 3 pints of paraffin added. It must be applied with great force, to break through the webs with which the spiders protect themselves. Hop washing is done by means of large garden engines worked by hand or by horseengines: even steam-engines have sometimes been employed. Among fungoid parasites, Mould or Mildew is frequently the cause of loss to Hop planters. It is due to the action of the fungus Podosphaera castagnei, and the mischief is more especially that done to the cones. The remedy is sulphur, employed usually in the form of flowers of sulphur, from 40 to 60 lb.

per acre being applied at each sulphuring, distributed by means of a blast pipe. The first sulphuring takes place when the plants are fairly up the poles and is repeated three or four weeks later, and even again if indications of mildew are present. Sulphur is also successfully employed in the form of an alkaline sulphur, such as a solution of liver of sulphur, a variety of potassium sulphide. [ Top ] ---Parts Used Medicinally--- (a) The strobiles, collected and dried as described. (b) The Lupulin, separated from the strobiles by sifting. ---Chemical Constituents--- The aromatic odour of the Hop strobiles is due to a volatile oil, of which they yield about 0.3 to 1.0 per cent. It appears to consist chiefly of the sesquiterpene Humulene. Petroleum spirit extracts 7 to 14 per cent of a powerfully antiseptic soft resin, and ether extracts a hard resin. The petroleum spirit extract contains the two crystalline bitter principles (a) Lupamaric acid (Humulone), (b) Lupamaric acid (Lupulinic acid).

These bodies are chiefly contained in the glands at the base of the bracts. The leafy organs contain about 5 per cent of tannin which is not a constituent of the glands. Hops yield about 7 per cent Ash. The oil and the bitter principle combine to make Hops more useful than Chamomile, Gentian or any other bitter in the manufacture of beer: hence the medicinal value of extra-hopped or bitter beer. The tannic acid contained in the strobiles adds to the value of Hops by causing precipitation of vegetable mucilage and consequently the cleansing of beer. Fresh Hops possess a bitter aromatic taste and a strong characteristic odour. The latter, however, changes and becomes distinctly unpleasant as the Hops are kept. This change is ascribed to oxidation of the soft resin with production of Valerianic acid. On account of the rapid change in the odour of Hops, the recently dried fruits should alone be used: these may be recognized by the characteristic odour and distinctly green colour. Those which have been subjected to the treatment of sulphuring are not to be used in pharmacy.

This process is conducted with a view of improving the colour and odour of the Hops, since sulphuric acid is found to retard the production of the Valerianic odour and to both preserve and improve the colour of the Hops. Lupulin, which consists of the glandular powder present on the seeds and surface of the scales, may be separated by shaking the strobiles. The drug occurs in a granular, brownish-yellow powder, with the strong odour and bitter aromatic taste characteristic of Hops. The glands readily burst on the application of slight pressure and discharge their granular oleo-resinous contents. Commercial Lupulin is often of a very inferior quality, and consists of the sifted sweepings from the floors of hop-kilns. It should contain not more than 40 per cent of matter insoluble in ether and not yield more than 12 per cent of ash on incineration. A dark colour and disagreeable odour indicates an old drug. The chief constituent of Lupulin is about 3 per cent of volatile oil, which consists chiefly of Humulene, together with various oxygenated bodies to which the oil owes its peculiar odour.

Other constituents are the two Lupamaric acids, cholene and resin. Lupulin is official both in the British Pharmacopoeia and the United States Pharmacopoeia. [ Top ] ---Medicinal Action and Uses--- Hops have tonic, nervine, diuretic and anodyne properties. Their volatile oil produces sedative and soporific effects, and the Lupamaric acid or bitter principle is stomachic and tonic. For this reason Hops improve the appetite and promote sleep. The official preparations are an infusion and a tincture. The infusion is employed as a vehicle, especially for bitters and tonics: the tincture is stomachic and is used to improve the appetite and digestion. Both preparations have been considered to be sedative, were formerly much given in nervousness and hysteria and at bedtime to induce sleep; in cases of nervousness, delirium and inflammation being considered to produce a most soothing effect, frequently procuring for the patient sleep after long periods of sleeplessness in overwrought conditions of the brain. The bitter principle in the Hop proves one of the most efficacious vegetable bitters obtainable. An infusion of 1/2 oz.

Hops to 1 pint of water will be found the proper quantity for ordinary use. It has proved of great service also in heart disease, fits, neuralgia and nervous disorders, besides being a useful tonic in indigestion, jaundice, and stomach and liver affections generally. It gives prompt ease to an irritable bladder, and is said to be an excellent drink in cases of delirium tremens. Sherry in which some Hops have been steeped makes a capital stomachic cordial. A pillow of warm Hops will often relieve toothache and earache and allay nervous irritation. An infusion of the leaves, strobiles and stalks, as Hop Tea, taken by the wineglassful two or three times daily in the early spring, is good for sluggish livers. Hop Tea in the leaf, as frequently sold by grocers, consists of Kentish Hop leaves, dried, crushed under rollers and then mixed with ordinary Ceylon or Indian Tea. The infusion combines the refreshment of the one herb with the sleepinducing virtues of the other. Hop juice cleanses the blood, and for calculus trouble nothing better can be found than the bitter principle of the Hop.

A decoction of the root has been esteemed as of equal benefit with Sarsaparilla. As an external remedy, an infusion of Hops is much in demand in combination with chamomile flowers or poppy heads as a fomentation for swelling of a painful nature, inflammation, neuralgic and rheumatic pains, bruises, boils and gatherings. It removes pain and allays inflammation in a very short time. The Hops may also be applied as a poultice. The drug Lupulin is an aromatic bitter and is reputed to be midly sedative, inducing sleep without causing headache. It is occasionally administered as a hypnotic, either in pills with alcohol, or enclosed in a cachet. Preparations of Lupulin are not much used in this country, although official, but in the United States they are considered preferable for internal use. History Of Hop Growing Industry In Bromyard 2011 Results History of Hops Bromyard’s history and heritage has long been associated with hops since they were first introduced into the Frome valley in 1577. Herefordshire has recently seen a resurgence of the hop industry and is now the largest producing area in the UK.

In the hop growing hey-day hundreds of people from the industrial centres of South Wales, the Midlands and the Black country used to travel to Bromyard and then onto the hop yards to combine a family holiday in the fresh county air with harvesting the hops. Hops in Herefordshire Hops have been known since early times. In the First Century AD, they were described as a salad plant but it was almost certainly in the medieval monasteries of Europe where they were grown as a medicinal herb that they were first used in beer. While a book on medieval trade records hops as being imported into this country in 1420, a dictionary of just 20 years later lists them but states that beer was a foreign drink. For at least 300 years Herefordshire produced more hops than the local brewers needed. Hop growing in Herefordshire is now mainly concentrated in the sheltered river valleys of the Frome and the Lugg in the west of the country. The first half of the 19th century saw the highest acreage of hops ever in the Bromyard district, with 4,251 acres in 1835.

However, hop growing was an erratic business and over-production, blight and competition from foreign markets led to a drop of 65% by 1860. A gradual rise then occurred until the turn of the century, when the acreage was at 2,050. Foreign imports after World War I again caused problems; the acreage dropped by 45%, and by 1985 there were around 650 acres. It was probably the need to add value to English exports of wool by weaving that led to their introduction as a crop. Weaving in the fifteenth century was an unknown trade and skilled workers were brought in from Flanders to set up the industry. With them came their tastes and because they could not easily buy hops they began to grow them. Hop yards were a familiar feature of the countryside around Bromyard and along the Frome and Teme Valleys with a few acres on many farms being devoted to hops up until the late 1950s. This changed with standardization of school holidays by Education Acts, the introduction of large scale mechanization, competition from foreign hops, and the devastating effect of the hop disease, verticillium wilt.

Hop growing was a year round occupation for wirework must be erected and repaired, poles replaced, and anchors adjusted to accommodate the weight of the hop vines. Rows were cultivated, manured, and sprayed for disease, blight, aphids, and weeds. As the vines began to grow in April, local labourers and women started the Spring season stringing, tying and training the best vines. Lower bines were later removed so tractors could pass down the rows. All this with lambing, milking, growing and picking soft fruits, haymaking, and in July and August preparing the hop kilns for drying, and getting ready for the arrival of scores of hop pickers in September. Nineteen hour days organized into two shifts from 6am – 3.30pm, and 3.30pm – 1am were the order of the day to get the hops picked and dried. Dinners were cooked over big iron grates called hop devils, (barbecues are not new), and old blackened kettles provided hot water for the thermos of tea taken to the hopyards along with piles of sandwiches.

‘Going hopping’ for children meant sleeping on straw pallets, rabbit stews, avoiding wasps, picking hops into an old umbrella while their mothers worked at the cribs to fill the greensacks. It was a hard ‘working holiday’ but in the evening there was singing around the fires, and places to explore. At the end of the month, they returned home with apples, damsons, potatoes, bunches of hops for their chapel and church harvest festivals, sun tanned, fitter, and with extra money for the months ahead in their pockets. Picking the Hops The pickers’ day would start early at 7am. The early morning was the best time for picking as the hops became harder to pull when it got warmer in the afternoon. Hops were picked into cribs, these were rough wooden frames about 7ft by 3ft with hessian strung across. After the hops had been picked they had to be measured and bushelled so that the picker could be paid for the day’s work. The busheller would call out the number as he measured the hops into a sack, which had a mark inside giving a measurement of one bushel.

The count would be kept by the tally-man who carried a number of tallies on his belt. Tallies were pieces of wood about 15 inches long, split into two pieces. One of the pieces would be given to the picker as a record of their total. The two pieces would only fit together in a certain way and the count was recorded by file marks across both pieces so the picker could not alter his or her total. By the late 19th century Herefordshire hop growers had changed to the hop token scheme. Tokens were coin-like metal discs of various sizes, all stamped with the farmer’s name. These tokens could then be exchanged for cash at the end of the picking season or, if strapped for cash, at the end of the day. The tokens could be spent at the local pub or shop and were accepted by most local tradesmen. The token system was later replaced by the booking system whereby each picker and busheller was given a book and the amount picked was recorded by the busheller in both books. If you wanted to have some of your earnings early then the bushellers would enter the amount paid out in both books. A fast picker could pick up to 25 bushels a day in fine weather.

Often there were strikes by the pickers demanding more money, but these never seemed to last very long. The hop farms in the Little Frome area seemed to be prone to having strikes on Thursdays but this may have had something to do with the fact that Bromyard market was held on this day. Of all the villages in the Bromyard area it was Bishops Frome that received the greatest number of pickers. During the 1920-30s the usual population of 700 would rise to about 5,000 during picking time. Drying the Hops The buildings used for drying hops in this area are called kilns. The method of drying the hops was via a natural warm air draught. A fire was kept burning in a chamber, called the plenum, situated below the drying floor. The warm air would rise up to the hops on the floor above. The floor of the drying room would have gaps in it to allow the air to get to the hops. The fire was kept going with wood or charred turf but later charcoal was used. One hundred sacks of charcoal were needed to dry one ton of hops.

Particular attention was paid to the temperature in the plenum and if it got too high cold air was allowed in to bring it back down. The general rule was that the starting temperature should not be more than 100º Fahrenheit (38º Centigrade), rising steadily to 140º Fahrenheit and never going above 160º Fahrenheit. When cast iron furnaces were introduced farmers were able to use cheaper fuel as any gases harmful to the hops could be channelled away. The drying room had a thin floor of wooden slats with one inch gaps in between. The floor was covered in horse-hair. In recent times this covering has been replaced with a synthetic floor covering, and some modern kilns have two or even three drying floors. During the first hour of drying the hops retained their colour and moisture. Sulphur was burnt to pass through the green hops and bleach them a yellowish tint. The sulphur was said to improve the aroma but it also helped to hide any discolouration from diseases or bruising and helped to preserve the hops. At about 2am the drier’s day would start with him waking to turn the hops.

To turn the hops without damaging them the driers used a wide flat wooden paddle called a scruppet. By evening the hops would be dry. The drier would test the progress of the hops by rubbing them between his fingers, and if they were sufficiently dry they would become a powder. If they were not dry they would feel sticky when rubbed.In the 1930s fans in kilns came into general use. These moved the hot air round the kiln more efficiently and so sped up the drying process. After the hops had been dried they were moved from the drying floor to the cooling room. The moisture and the slow cooling meant that the hops became soft and supple rather than dry and brittle. After cooling the hops would be loaded into pockets (very large, long sacks) and compressed down firmly to ensure that they would survive storage and transport. The easiest way to fill the pockets was to have a hole cut in the floor and the pocket would hang from this hole with the weight of the pocket supported by a sling. When full, the top of the pocket would be stitched up. The sides of the pocket were stamped with the grower’s name and address. Each pocket held around one and a half hundred weight.

In 1774 a law was passed that stated that the weight should be stamped on the pocket, as well as the year. In 1838 it became law for the hop pockets to be made out of five yards of hessian cloth, and also that they should be 42-45 inches wide. At the end of the picking season there was much celebration and parties were held on the majority of hop farms. There would be singing and dancing and plenty of drinking before the families packed up their belongings and boarded the trains back to their homes. Oast Houses :: Geograph Britain and Ireland ❖ Gallery An Oast House is a building used to dry fresh hops before they are sent to the brewers, to be used for flavouring beer. Beer was not produced within the oast house itself, but some malthouses (breweries) did incorporate drying kilns for drying barley for malt. A typical Oast House consisted of the 'oast' and the 'stowage'. The oast was a kiln, with a plenum chamber fired by charcoal at ground floor and the drying floor directly above. The steep pitched roof channelled the hot air through the hops to the top.

A cowl on the top of the roof allowed the hot air ('reek') to be drawn up through the kiln in a vacuum effect. The cowl pivoted to control the air extraction and stop rain getting in. The stowage, was the barn section, it had a cooling floor and press at first floor and storage area at ground floor. The dried hops were taken from the drying floor to cool and be packed using a hop press. The press packed hops in a large sack called a 'pocket' suspended to the ground floor where the pockets were stored to await collection. Typical section through an oast house ❖ Production The first form of oast house appeared around the latter part of the 1500's, with the increasing use of hops as a profitable crop. It wasn't until the mid 1700's that hop production took off and the oast house became to be built in greater numbers, and not until the mid 1800's that it was in full production and many of the oast houses that can be seen today originated. Over 5000 oast houses were constructed with 3000 in Kent alone.

Only a handful of original cowled oast houses are still in use for drying hops. One example is at Scotney Farm, a National Trust owned property (not open to the public) producing hops for 'Scotney Ale'. Today most hops are dried in modern ridge ventilated buildings. Many oast houses were demolished after the hop industry decline at the beginning of the 1900s, however there are estimated to be over of 3500 original cowl ventilated Oast Houses left standing in England, dating from the 1740's to the 1930's. The oldest surviving at Godwin House. The newest at Clockhouse Farm. ❖ Location Hops were grown throughout England but there were only a few areas that they were grown in great numbers. Oast Houses were built in the major hop growing regions. The majority of oast houses are found in the South East in Kent (approx 60%) and Sussex (approx 20%).

A large number are found Herefordshire and Worcestershire (approx 15%) there are also a small numbers inï¿½ Hampshire (approx 2%) ï¿½and Greater London Oast House grid square coverage map ï¿½ Copyright 2008 nearby.org.uk/Barry Hunter Hop picking was at its peak in England between 1860 and 1880 when around 70,000 acres of hops were picked each year. Cheap imports from Europe being the main reason for their decline. Nowadays only about 5% of hops are produced compared with the peak years. ❖ Kiln Types There are four main kiln types within the oast house. The Internal kiln Mid to late c18 Originally oast houses were adapted barns, with a kiln built in the centre. Built of timber, many burnt down, or were replaced with purpose built oasts. The earliest remaining oast is from about 1740, but there were undoubtedly older incarnations that have since disappeared. The Square kiln Late c18 to early c19. Fires were common place in the original internal kiln, so the kiln moved outside of the building.

They were around 12-14 foot across. The Round kiln Early c19 to 1920's. The most common; around 65% of oast kilns are round. It was thought that round kilns were more efficient that the square in terms of heat dissipation, and more cost efficient in materials. Early kilns 12-14 foot, later kilns 16-20 foot. Mid-late c19 to 1928. By the end of the 19th Century it was found that circular kilns were no more efficient than square kilns. The square kiln was continued, this time in larger 16-20 foot sizes in response to the large demand for hops, and economy of scale. It was down to the preference of the farmer or architect whether they chose a square or round kiln. There are many round-kilned oast houses with additional square kilns added. Large square oasts are particularly prevalent in East Kent as by the latter part of the hop producing years East Kent was a large driving force of the industry, as there were a number of local breweries, and many newer and larger oasts were built here.

Some purpose built mid c20 oasts also reintroduced cowl ventilated internal kilns, this time using a forced draught system. The Ridge ventilated kiln. Internal kiln or kilns, this time with a vent running along the top of the roof and mechanical draught. Found on modern oasts c20 to present. An octagonal kiln can be found in Hawkhurst. A kiln attached to the oast house at Littlebourne Green was built to fit in with the river. ❖ Malthouses What is the difference between an Oast House and Malthouse? As maltings have similar kilns with roof ventilators akin to the oast houses, it can sometimes be difficult to tell if a building was an oast house or maltings. Malthouses were used to dry grain rather than hops, and typically have much larger kiln sizes. The malthouse was part of the brewery and so was significantly larger than a typical oast house. Instead of a rotating cowl they often have a square ventilator cap at the top of the kiln roof. Generally speaking those buildings outside of the South East and The West midlands are Maltings or Malthouses.

There are many malthouses within the British Isles, and like oast houses, most that survive have now been converted to dwellings, usually multiple apartment units, or due to their large sizes and relatively flexible open plan layout, are particularly suited to business units. Hop Production | Roy Farms Hop Production Whether a hop yard is configured in the conventional high trellis style or on new low trellis systems, production starts with the planting of new, disease-free hop roots in February through March. The grower hopes that the selection of the planted variety will have commercial value for at least 7 years from date of planting—switching varieties is costly and not done on a whim. Some varieties will be able to produce a commercially viable crop in the first year though this is exhibited by only a few super-alpha varieties. Even these will take another year to stabilize agronomic production of optimum alpha acid (bitterness) per acre. The traditional bittering and aroma varieties may deliver a good crop the second Fall after planting but three years is typical to achieve full potential in both yield and brewing quality.

Hops are very energetic—from a clump of emergent green shoots in early May and trained later in the month, the hop bine in a conventional yard will race up a twine over 20 feet long to trellis wire above by the 4th of July. Shortly after, side branching begins on many varieties. Once the female flowers or cones emerge, the energy of the plant is directed to adding vegetation to the cone’s structure. As the cone grows to full size, the resins and oils essential for beer taste and aroma are laid down in specialized structures (lupulin glands) within it. Cones reach maturity in late August for the aroma crop and harvest is continuous through late September as the old-style bittering then super-alpha hops are brought in. The preparation and nurturing of the crop over the growing period will only be rewarded if harvest is synchronized to each variety’s maturity. Any delay leads to losses of quantity, quality or both. What kind of hops do we grow? Well, that is a big question. “Kind” encompasses varietal classification, trellis system and conventional cultivation vs. organic. Here is a quick review of the varieties and growing systems at Roy Farms.

Full Range of Varieties We produce varieties in every classification: super-alpha, high-alpha, aroma and the latest development—high alpha with unique, desirable aroma properties. Conventional or Low-Trellis Training Systems For the current season we have yards of varieties under both high- and low-trellis systems. Moving more acreage from conventional high trellis to the more sustainable low-trellis is an ongoing effort as we learn the adaptation of each variety. Conventional Pest Management or Organic An increasing section of the brewery market is looking for organically raised hops and we are working to meet the demand. This, too, represents a learning curve for us as we allocate ground to varietal testing and then commercial development of organic yards. Since we have adopted Integrated Pest Management (the late 1980’s) and then increasing plant pest resistance from increasing soil health (turn of the millennium), our challenges have not been as great as anticipated but there are always things to learn to maximize yield and quality while providing economic return for all stakeholders. Are Roy Farms hops traceable back to field origin and chemical treatment? Absolutely!

Back about 10 years ago it became apparent that brewers wanted to know more about food safety issues related to their hops—what chemicals had been applied, how close to harvest they had been applied and more. We were faced with a decision: “Do we assemble this information for selected parts of our market or do we maintain this data as part of serving the entire hop market?” The answer was easy. We needed to tabulate the information for the safety of farm staff anyway—to observe limits of safe REI’s (Re-Entry Intervals). We knew that the desire of customers for this information would only grow and we had the ability to incorporate the information into our crop management databases... “Why would we NOT make this information a standard part of our product package?” Traceability and food safety concerns (and data gathering) do not end at harvest, our attention to data gathering and reporting are core elements of assigning harvested crop to inventory and logistical planning for sales.

Integrated Inventory and Logistics As crop is harvested, it is allocated to specific inventory lines to anticipate market demand by variety, food safety requirements and/or product form (baled hops, hop pellets, etc.) We have historical information as to when each type of product is likely to be required in the marketplace so it is possible for Roy Farms to dedicate lots at harvest to specific hop processing schedules in order to service the very earliest delivery requirements. Hop Processing Bines are cut from high-trellis systems, laid in trailers and moved to the picking facility. There, hop cones are separated from the bines via a picking system and sent to hop kilns for drying. The remaining bines, along with stems and leaves sifted from picked cones, are removed to the composting area. Kilning very gently takes the green hops from moisture of over 70% down to 10-12%. The cones are then moved (very gently again) to a cooling floor to allow for the cones to equalize remaining moisture across the bulk as they cool. The hops may be turned or ventilated on the floor to maximize cooling efficiency and moisture homogeneity.

Once the hops are cool, the most common next step in processing is the compression of the raw hops into bales. Hop cones are so low in bulk density that this "densification" step is required to allow for practical transport to hop dealers/processors. Because of the tendency of many hop varieties to rapidly degrade, the time constraint from harvest, picking, kilning and through to baling is kept as short as physically possible. Depending upon the variety and crop year this may be as little as 24 hours or as long as 36 hours. Our hop processing is grounded in three strategic principles: 1. There should be no single point of failure in the system. Harvest must move very efficiently in order to capture the peak of quality present in the fresh hop. To achieve this goal, we have: four separate picking installations each with its own kilning, cooling and baling equipment two separate pellet mills a field picking unit for use on our low-trellis hops 2. Facilities and equipment have to be not only fast but easy to clean and present maximum employee safety and the lowest possible risk of quality loss. All of our buildings, fixed equipment and rolling stock are state-of-the-art.

Even those items that are not “new” are constantly refurbished or re-built to the latest standards. 3. Work force stability Even with all the latest technology, there are a lot of judgment calls that need to be made quickly during harvest and processing. Roy Farms meets the challenge by maximizing staff skill and stability. They are engaged in productive jobs throughout the year. That way, we have trained eyes and ears in the right jobs during the critical harvest period. These three key elements allow us to harvest very efficiently without a “rushed” atmosphere around the harvest process. This allows Roy Farms to focus on providing excellent quality and yield to the marketplace. Still, our constant contact with brewers led us to believe that there was even more that we could do for the aroma hop user. And, so we did. Low Temperature Drying of Aroma Hops Brewers seeking the finest in aroma hops are looking for intact hops, deep green in color and possessed of the maximum depth and breadth of the variety-specific “nose”. Past the effort of careful picking and cleaning, the next step to preserve these traits is to slowly dry the hops at lower temperatures than typical for the bittering hops. Lower temperatures minimize the potential oxidation of key elements of the aroma profile.

Also, the hop cones reach more even moisture distribution during the kilning process rather than waiting to accomplish this at the cooling floor. This allows for raw hops transfer from kiln to cooling and subsequent processes with less shatter, better color and more of the essential oils maintained in “harvest-fresh” condition. Harvest Fresh Pellets® Our baling units are set up to perform as gentle a “squeeze” on the hops as possible. We have minimized friction at baler walls, perform multiple fills and presses per bale to allow settling of product, and pay careful attention to maximum weight and compression pressure. Despite this, there will always be some disruption to the lupulin glands in the cone which allow for oxidation of brewing resins and essential oils. While some brewers prefer a bit of oxidation on their hops as a positive contribution to flavor, a growing part of the aroma market desires as close “green hop” profile as possible. We meet this need by moving the carefully dried aroma hops directly to a pellet mill and bypass baling entirely. This provides for increased preservation of alpha acids and superior aroma profiles. The pelletizer is configured with a bore size and compression ratio to allow production of outstanding pellets at temperatures below the limit at which oxidation is a problem.

Though the pellets are carefully compressed, they still will fit into standard industry boxes for shipment. Hop Contracting The hop market can be very volatile. Supply and demand are not easily forecasted. Current acreage—total and by variety—is generally declining. Many varieties are not widely dispersed in acreage which represents a supply-side vulnerability to the occasional late-season rain, hail and high wind event. At the same time, many brewers prize stability of the hop blends in their beers as essential components of brand signature. They desire continuity of supply, at quantity consistent with their brand growth and, often enough, staggered over multiple years. We have responded to that need by working direct with Brewers along with wholesale dealer/distributor organizations to make allowance for contractual supply of most varieties.

Question: In early UK beer production what is a kiln for drying hops popularly called?
Answer: Oast