Shepherd Neame hops in 1947

Unsurprisingly for a brewery located in hop country, Shepherd Neame had their own hop gardens. In most brews these made up the majority of the hops. In the table below they’re the ones described as Kent.

As you can see, they were using quite a lot of old hops – some were three seasons old. At any one period there was little variation in the hopping. All the beers received the same hops, Mild or Bitter.

There was one exception, however. That was SS Stout, which also contained a quantity of hopulon, which I assume is some sort of hop concentrate. It’s a bit odd that a Kent brewery surrounded by hop fields should use a concentrate. Especially as this was almost certainly imported.

Shepherd Neame hops in 1947
Beer	Style	OG	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4
MB	Mild	1027.1	English 1943	Kent 1945	Kent 1946
LDA	Pale Ale	1027.1	English 1943	Kent 1945	Kent 1946
AK	Pale Ale	1027.1	Kent 1944	Kent 1944	Kent 1946
BB	Pale Ale	1031.3	Kent 1944	Kent 1944	Kent 1946
BA	Pale Ale	1034.3	Kent 1944	Kent 1944	Kent 1946
SS	Stout	1027.1	English 1943	Kent 1945	Kent 1946	hopulon
Source:
1947 Shepherd Neame brewing book, held at the brewery.