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.