Friday 5 October 2018

Boddington AK hopping 1901 - 1917

This will probably be my last post on AK for a while. Bet you're relieved. Though I'm bound to return to the topic at some point.

Boddinton were always pretty crazy when it came to hopping, using, as they did, five or six different types in every beer. Most breweries stuck to between two and four types. Usually from several different years' harvests. It's a right pain in the arse when transcribing their brewing records and when writing recipes.

While before the war there was generally only one type of foreign hops, during it there were usually two. Boddington's favourite sources being California and Belgium, though Bohemia pops up occasionally, too.

Note that there Belgian hops from the 1915 harvest in the 1917 AK. Belgium's Poperinge hop region was in the tiny corner of Belgium never occupied by the Germans. With very few brewers left locally who could take their hops, ther were plenty going spare. UK brewers used them in increasing quantities later in the war when most other foreign supplies were cut off.

Boddington AK hopping 1901 - 1917
Date Year OG copper hops dry hops
12th Dec 1901 1046 English (4 types) Californian
9th July 1902 1046 English (1900, 1901) Californian (1900)
7th May 1903 1046 English (1900, 1901, 1901 CS, 1902) Californian (1901)
29th Jan 1913 1042 English (1909, 1910, 1911, 1912) Poperinge (1911)
9th Jul 1914 1044 English (1910, 1912, 1913) Bohemian (1912) Californian (1913) English (1913) & Californian (1913) 
5th May 1915 1039 English (1911, 1912, 1913, 1914) Poperinghe (1913) Californian (1913) English (1914) & Californian (1913)
16th May 1916 1040 English (1912, 1915) Californian (1914) Poperinge (1914) English (1915) & Californian (1914)
1st Feb 1917 1039 English (1914, 1915, 1916) Californian (1915) Poperinge (1915) English (1916) & Californian (1915)
Sources:
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/126.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/126.
Boddington brewing record held at Manchester Central Library, document number M693/405/127.

2 comments:

qq said...

The main hop of Poperinge was the Witte Rank, which people seem to think is similar to British whitebines, and hence a great-aunt of the Goldings family. It was very much the premier Belgian hop, the likes of Aalst redbines were considered inferior.

Interesting that they're dry hopping with Californian - presumably Cluster or similar??

Brando said...

Hey Ron,

Please keep the AK info coming!

Thanks