Whitbread hops in 1973

As a few of you masochists have claimed to enjoy this type of post, I'm going to soldier on with them.

You've probably guessed that this  is material which will make its way into "Keg!", the book I'm writing on 1970s brewing. It's coming along rather nicely. The manuscript is currently about 200 pages. But I haven't put in many of the personal recollections yet. My guess is about 400 pages when I'm done.

On with the excerpt.

What next? All we have left are the hops. And there were plenty of those.

Every beer except the Export Pale Ale includes hop extract. Which was the equivalent of 25%-30% of hops.

Other than a few Styrian hops, they were all English. Most from Kent and Worcester, with one example from Hampshire. With the English hop industry still reasonably healthy, there was little need to import hops.

And why let those samples go to waste? It makes sense to throw them into a brew. There weren’t enough to make much difference. Just a couple of dozen pounds out of several hundred. Not enough to make any difference in flavour. Especially when there were already a couple of different kinds of hops.

Whitbread hops in 1973
Beer	Style	hop 1	hop 2	hop 3	hop 4	hop 5	hop 6
Best Mild	Mild	Worcs (1971)	Worcs (1972)	hop extract
Trophy	Pale Ale	Kent (1972)	Kent (1972)	Worcs (1972)	hop extract
Tankard	Pale Ale	Kent (1972)	Kent (1972)	Worcs (1972)	hop extract
Export Pale Ale	Pale Ale	Styrian (1970)	EK (1970)	Hants (1970)
Mackeson	Stout	Worcs (1972)	Worcs (1972)	samples (1972)	hop extract
Extra Stout	Stout	Worcs (1972)	Worcs (1972)	samples (1972)	hop extract
Final Selection	Strong Ale	EK hops (1972)	EK hops  (1972)	hop extract
Gold Label	Barley Wine	Styrian (1971)	Styrian (1971)	MK (1972)	EK (1971)	Worcs (1972)	hop extract
Source:
Whitbread brewing record held at the London Metropolitan Archives, document number LMA/4453/D/09/141.