Tuesday 25 January 2022

London X Ales hops 1880 - 1899

Finally, it’s time to look at the hops. Unsurprisingly, the commonest source of hops is the UK. In particular, Kent. Not so odd, really, as it’s right next door to London. There are also a few from Worcester and Surrey. And quite a few where no specific location in England is mentioned. It’s probably safe to assume that most of these came from Kent. Just statistically, given that it produced far more hops than any other region.

Even more specific than that, Mid-Kent was the most common source. With rather fewer from East Kent, where the classier hops tended to come from. While Mid-Kent and Worcester provided the more workaday hops.

The second most common supplier of hops after the UK was the USA. Again, not much of a shock as it was already one of the world’s largest producers of hops. By this point most of the US hop industry had shifted from New York State to the West Coast. In some cases, California, Washington or simply. Pacific is recorded in the brewing record.

Trailing a distant third, with only 4 examples in the table compared to the 12 of the US, is Germany. Their hops were valued rather more highly than those from the USA and are more likely to turn up in expensive beers like Pale Ale. Though mostly just recorded as Bavarian, they were most likely to have been Hallertau.

The example called Bohemian will be Saaz or something similar. No idea what variety the ones from Burgundy might have been. Nor the two simply described as “Foreign”. They could have come from anywhere.

In most cases, the hops were from either the most recent harvest or the one before that. Though one lot, the Bohemians used by Truman, were three years old. Given that I’ve seen plenty of examples of hops five years or more old being used, overall these were pretty fresh.

London X Ales hops 1880 - 1899
Year Brewer hop 1 hop 2 hop 3 hop 4
1880 Barclay Perkins MK 1879 US 1878 Bavarian 1879  
1886 Barclay Perkins MK 1883 MK 1885 California 1885  
1886 Barclay Perkins MK 1885 US 1885 MK 1884  
1887 Barclay Perkins MK 1885 MK 1886 Farnhams 1885   
1890 Barclay Perkins MK 1886 MK 1889 US 1889  
1899 Barclay Perkins MK 1899 US 1898 MK Goldings 1897  
1881 Whitbread Bavarian 1880 English 1880 English 1881  
1885 Whitbread English 1883 English 1884 Bavarian 1884  
1891 Whitbread English 1890 US 1889 US 1890 Hallertau 1890
1895 Whitbread English 1894 English 1894 Pacific 1894  
1898 Whitbread EK 1897 EK 1897 MK 1896  
1887 Fullers Kent 1884 EK 1883    
1893 Fullers Foreign 1892      
1898 Fullers Worcs. 1897 MK 1896    
1880 Truman US 1879 US 1879    
1885 Truman Kent 1884 US 1884 Bohemian 1882  
1890 Truman Kent 1889 Kent 1889 Burgundy 1889  
1895 Truman Kent 1893 Kent 1894 Washington 1893 Foreign 1893
Sources:
Barclay Perkins brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers ACC/2305/1/579, ACC/2305/1/584, ACC/2305/1/583, ACC/2305/1/586 and ACC/2305/1/593.
Whitbread brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers LMA/4453/D/01/047, LMA/4453/D/01/050, LMA/4453/D/01/057, LMA/4453/D/01/061 and LMA/4453/D/01/064
Fullers brewing records held at the brewery.
Truman brewing records held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document numbers B/THB/C/161, B/THB/C/166, B/THB/C/171 and B/THB/C/175.

 


1 comment:

Unknown said...

If I had to, I'd guess that "Burgundy" is one of the "...de Bourgogne" hops. Grown in Alsace(?).