Hops in Scotland 1880 - 1914

Huge quantities of foreign hops were imported into the UK in the three decades before WW I. The USA and Central Europe supplied the most, though hops from just about country that produced them were brought into the country. How they were used depended very much on their origin.

Top-quality hops like Saaz and Hallertau were highly valued and used in much the same way as the best Kent hops. That is in the form of late aroma additions and dry hops. While cheaper hops from the USA, whose flavour wasn’t greatly liked, were usually early bittering hop additions. The same was true of other less fashionable ones like Poperinge hops from Belgium.

Hops from the USA were given a variety of descriptions. Originally they were just called American, but later in the century, as the US hop growing centres began to move from the East to the West Coast, terms like Pacific, Oregon or California were used as well. Presumably to help differentiate between hops from the East and West.

On the eve of WW I, William Younger was using mostly Pacific hops, the rest coming from Kent. For example, in December 1913, of the total 11,970 lbs of hops they used, 9,110 lbs (slightly more than 75%) were Pacific.  Unusually, Drybrough were using all English hops in 1906, though by 1914 there were also some Californian and continental hops in their beers as well .

The above is an excerpt from the best book ever written on Scottish beer:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/scotland-vol-2/paperback/product-23090497.html