As you’ll see, if you can be arsed to look at the numbers in the tables, there was quite a bit of variation in the alpha acid content from year to year.
For example, the difference between the highest and lowest years for Wye Target was 29%. For Goldings, 33%. And for Bullion a massive 46%.
Interestingly, the good and bad years don’t match up for the different varieties. For example, 1976 was the top year for many types: Goldings, Bullion and Progress. But a poor year for Wye Target. While for some 1978 was the best year: Wye Northdown and Wye Challenger.
Now, if I was being dead clever, I’d incorporate the exact alpha acid level into the recipes. Mmm. Good idea that.
From the overall average, it seems that increasing volumes of the higher alpha varieties were being grown.
| Average Alpha Acid Content (%) of individual varieties 1969 - 1974 | ||||||
| Variety of Hops | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 |
| Goldings | - | - | 4.5 | 4.2 | 5.2 | 4.9 |
| Fuggles | - | - | 3.7 | 4.1 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Northern Brewer | 7.1 | 6.7 | 6.1 | 6.5 | 7.6 | 6.9 |
| Bramling Cross | - | 6.2 | 5 | 4.7 | 6.4 | 5.6 |
| Bullion | 6.6 | 6.3 | 5.9 | 7.4 | 8.4 | 7.7 |
| Wye Northdown | - | - | 7.2 | 7.7 | 8.5 | 8.4 |
| Progress | - | 5.4 | 4.9 | 4.7 | 5.9 | 5.4 |
| Keyworths | - | 6.5 | 5.5 | 5.7 | 7.7 | 6.3 |
| Wye Challenger | - | - | 7.1 | 7 | 7.4 | 6.9 |
| W.G.V. | - | - | 5 | 4.7 | 5.7 | 5.6 |
| Wye Target | - | - | - | - | 10 | 9.3 |
| Others | - | - | 4 | 4.1 | 5.3 | 5 |
| Sources: | ||||||
| The Brewers' Society UK Statistical Handbook 1974, page 20. | ||||||
| The Brewers' Society UK Statistical Handbook 1978, page 20. | ||||||
| Average Alpha Acid Content (%) of individual varieties 1975 - 1980 | ||||||
| Variety of Hops | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 |
| Goldings | 4.8 | 5.6 | 4.6 | 5.2 | 4.5 | 4.7 |
| Fuggles | 4.2 | 4.5 | 3.9 | 4.6 | 3.9 | 4.2 |
| Northern Brewer | 7.1 | 7.5 | 6.9 | 7.5 | 7.5 | 7.4 |
| Bramling Cross | 5.6 | 6.8 | 4.8 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| Bullion | 7.7 | 9.2 | 7.1 | 8.3 | 6.7 | 7.8 |
| Wye Northdown | 8.1 | 8.4 | 8.1 | 8.6 | 8 | 7.9 |
| Progress | 5.1 | 6.3 | 5.1 | 5.9 | 5.1 | 5.4 |
| Keyworths | 6.9 | 7.4 | 5.9 | 7.4 | 5.7 | 6.2 |
| Wye Challenger | 6.8 | 7.4 | 7 | 7.8 | 7.2 | 7.3 |
| W.G.V. | 5.1 | 6.2 | 5.2 | 6 | 5.2 | 5.7 |
| Wye Target | 9.7 | 9.9 | 10.2 | 11.8 | 10.5 | 10.8 |
| Wye Saxon | - | 6.7 | 7 | 7.2 | 6.9 | 6.8 |
| Others | 5.7 | 7.1 | 6.4 | 7 | 6.7 | 6.4 |
| Overall average | - | - | 6.9 | 7.8 | 7.1 | 7.3 |
| Sources: | ||||||
| The Brewers' Society UK Statistical Handbook 1974, page 20. | ||||||
| The Brewers' Society UK Statistical Handbook 1978, page 20. | ||||||
| The Brewers' Society UK Statistical Handbook 1980, page 24. | ||||||
I'd guess there would have been a lot of cold storage and blending of crops from year to year, busy time in the brewery labs!!
ReplyDeleteIt's far more local, but there's a lot of alpha values in the Wye College Annual Reports if you can get hold of them - a lot of them used to be available on Google Books but it seems no longer. They go back to the 1920s.
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