What's the future of British hops?

[@davidellis6468]

This should be the benchmark that all other documentaries should be measured against. Entertaining, informative, well produced, and personable. Brilliant, well done CBC.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Thanks so much David! Humbling to hear such feedback!

[@OscarOSullivan]

@@TheCraftBeerChannelThe future should be to champion the qualities of traditional hops. The likes Fuggles are superior to the American hops which fizzle out by the 5th week. Not ape others.

[@treyokelly9662]

American here but I love British ales and have kinda refocused my homebrewing to make an effort to brew more traditional British styles.

[@Jaedon-green]

Great update. Inspired by last year’s film, we planted 3 hop rhizomes. Having watched them grow throughout the spring and summer, we’re just waiting on the final days of bottle fermentation before we can taste our home grown hopped, home brew. Thanks for the inspiration 🍻

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Amazing, let us know how the beer turns out!

[@Jaedon-green]

Definitely a success. Well balanced with a touch of smokiness from 3% rauch malt in the recipe. One of several beers tasted with friends and common consensus was that it was one of the best beers of the night, only beaten by a young coconut infused porter I’d also prepped.

[@FrancisChenette]

A first rate episode, Mates. A nice sequel to last year's documentary. Thanks so much! I am American, but I am rooting for our cousins across the pond. You guys, Jonny and Brad, are the protectors of the British beer culture, and you are doing a wonderful job. Keep up the good work!

[@jamesyork48]

Loving the support for our producers 👍 fascinating video guys keep up the good work.

[@jamesyork48]

Also cf185 is a lovely hop I made a very nice bitter with it. Still have a bag or two so may have another go adding some other British hops in the mix 👍

[@RJVEK]

Fascinating. I have said it before in a previous video that I live in Whitstable and so next to Faversham, the home of Shepherd Neame. I love cycling along the lanes and see what I am assuming are East Kent Goldings, Fuggles and Bramling Cross etc. Sadly, it seems that some of the hop gardens are not replanted each year and this is so sad. There are also orchards, vineyards and plenty of oast houses, making East Kent one of the loveliest places to live in the world. One of my dreams would be to go back in time and see the steam train arrive at Faversham with the families from the East End who came a’hoppin. I can recommend a book to you, Jonny- it’s called Hopping by Melanie McGrath and tells the story of such a family. A great read and very poignant. Keep up the good work.

[@igmu-dn6ri]

Top story. I only brew with British hops and am excited about the possibilities with the new varieties. Cheers!

[@3rdDegreeTVLLC]

I owe so much of my growing knowledge and love for craft beer to you guys! Thanks a bunch!

[@MRW3455]

Brilliant work chaps, love jester and harlequin in my homebrew and have just ordered the new batch of Now IPA. Keep championing British ingredients 😁

[@whosradl]

I’m surprised, and love, to see the Shipyard Brewing parasol behind you while you’re drinking Now IPA!

[@Jaap-Relou]

Yessss, friday again here. Making Vegan burgers 🍔 and my all time favorite beer (westmalle tripel) all while making and baking watching this wonderful episode. 🍻 cheers. Enjoy your weekend lads 🤟🏼

[@Jango1989]

Brilliant as always! I absolutely love your documentaries🍻

[@beaudwayful]

KZbin need s 5x Thumbs Up button. This channel does such good beer docus.

[@harrySinga-bg4gi]

Good video guys intresting to see the dedication hop growers have in their product

[@MichaelAndersen_DK]

Damn, that's alot of experimental hobs in that nursery! I've said it before, but I'll say it again. KZbin really needs to invent smell'o'video. Breaking all those cones must have been very interesting. And the good ol' tapping of the can is still there. Cheers!

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Haha, or we should start posting hops to Patreons in advance of videos...

[@benfulford3943]

I've got to say I did really enjoy the Buxton brewery 50 fifty series they did mixing American hops with UK hops. I thought it was a great concept getting people into UK hops but still having that American roots. And it's not bad for a super market beer (shame it didn't make it into your supermarket ipa blind taste test 😉)

[@MrFlyingguy]

i also liked that series.

[@ethangriffiths7802]

Tried the channels collab with Verdant. And it was a fantastic beer

[@neoanderson5146]

Great video, why can't we grow the same hops as they do in New Zealand, isn't the weather similar ???

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Well, in parts of NZ certainly, but also NZ hops are grown at different altitudes, in different soils, and with subtly different weather patterns even if the climate over all is similar. A great example of the small but important issues is UK Cascade - in theory very easy to grow in the UK, but as it is a very late ripening hop it's VERY hard to harvest in the UK because October sees frosts and often heavy rain. So very little cascade is grown here.

[@neoanderson5146]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel Cheers for the detailed reply, I knew there would be a reason :)

[@garytong3395]

Maybe I missed something but......Why is there a push to find a replacement for Saaz?

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Because yields are down between 20 and 50% depending on the Year due to climate change and increased disease resistance. Its a race against time.

[@garytong3395]

​@@TheCraftBeerChannelMany thanks for the explanation 👍. I have 2 healthy Saaz growing at 1500m in the French Alps if you need some?😊

[@philclifton6813]

Great video thanks. My gut feeling is that the heritage varieties are globally unique and not everyone likes or will continue to like the big US hopped beers. UK new style hops will struggle to compete with US alternatives, no? Stick with what grows well and uniquely here, methinks. I'm a fan of mixing trad UK and US hops too.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

So the key thing to understand here is that trad UK hops AREN'T growing well here - goldings has proven fairly robust, but yields are down. Fuggle is really struggling and will eventually be obsolete - an alternative must be found. So UK hop growers are being forced to adapt - which means firstly creating hops that intentionally compete with the US (that's where the profit and growth is short and longer term) while also trialling new hop varieties that will offer UK flavours but without the short root stock and disease susceptibility that is making growing them very hard. US style brewing is here to stay, but there's room for more variety in that modern space.

[@philclifton6813]

Thanks, great answer. I'm perplexed that hops with trad British aroma are struggling. Some yes, but all of them? Progress, Challenger, First Good, Pilgrim etc? There's always room for new flavours but my impression of the new UK hops is that they sit between old English hops and the new world hops. Fruity, but not intense and punchy. Keep up the fantastic work you're doing, it must be greatly appreciated by commercial brewers and growers, as well as home brewers like myself.

[@OscarOSullivan]

I for one think so called new world hops like so called new world wine grapes lack the subtlety and quality of so called old world hops and grapes and are too focused on frying your palate

[@kaveendravasuthevan7838]

Physically I'm infront of my laptop, in the middle of work. Mentally I'm rocking on a hammock under the shade of the hop bines. Manifesting?😂

[@jasonsteel4882]

Global heating??

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

Yep. Warming aint a big enough word for it.

[@jasonsteel4882]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel It’s a scam mate. They’ve been bleating on about climate change for decades. Electric cars are also a scam when you realise how much energy & resources it costs to make them. Research the WEF….they have plans to strip away your freedoms by 2030

[@aegwyrt]

I like British beers best. I am tired of all the ales I drink tasting like grapefruit since I left the UK.

[@OscarOSullivan]

Agreed but I prefer mild which is easy to get in Ireland.

[@Doupyourflies]

Don't foreign producers pay for their water? Why aren't English hops cheaper without this overhead. I've never been a fan of most traditional British beer, the Yanks and German's do it better. I put it down to my dislike of the tobacco like astringency in the bitterness of the finish. Where does this come from? Is it a style brewers create deliberately or is down to a specific ingredient? I never get this flavour from foreign beers except very slightly in Pilsner Urquell and Budvar which makes me think it's a style thing. I've also tasted British beer which doesn't have it.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

English hops are insanely cheap compared the popular US hops! What makes you think they aren't? As for the tobacco astringency if you're getting any of that in a British beer, it's either not a well brewed beer or the hops used were not of a good standard. British hops can present as prickly and nettle-like but the earthy quality I think you're referring to as tobacco-like is not desirable and not a fault that should be held against the varieties themselves.

[@Doupyourflies]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel What makes me think hops are expensive? The craft beer trade keeps harping on about how expensive ingredients are while they charge £5.00 a tin. I love crispness in beer which is what I think the prickly, nettle thing is you're referring to but I'm talking finish, the aftertaste of tobacco that lingers. It's in all the mass produced "ales", even Carling have captured it. I assumed it was intentional and what makes it British. I haven't tasted it anywhere else except less strongly in Czech lager too but not German; occasionally in Belgian. The aftertaste in non Czech lagers is peppery and spicy, not tobacco like at all. It tends not to be in the new world beers brewed by British brewers. It's in the brown beers mainly, bitters and ales, Guiness has it too. Probably just me and the ladies.

[@TheCraftBeerChannel]

​@@Doupyourflies Of course ingredients are expensive, and rocketing upwards but British hops are significantly cheaper than American varieties - we're talking around a third of the price if you compare something like Citra to Fuggle (even more stark if it's Citra T90s). So breweries are right to "harp on" about the price of US varieties, but British varieties if anything are underpriced due to the lack of demand. As for the tobacco note, if you're getting it in so many different beers - Czech lager has absolutely nothing in common with British bitter (different yeasts, hops, malts and water profiles) - then it's like a sensitivity in your palate to a certain chemical compund, likely a phenol, rather than an ingredient. I'd imagine that it's in less bold and heavily hopped beers that you taste it. The compound is very likely there in beers you don't taste it in, but masked because it's got lots more going on.

[@Doupyourflies]

@@TheCraftBeerChannel No, I love US West Coast IPAs. Huge bitterness balanced with sweet malt. I celebrated with my Bro-in-law the first time I tried Punk IPA back in the noughties. English IPA is tobacco juice. America and Germany were eye openers for me, enjoyable beer you didn't have to get used to. I'm not the only one with the sensitive palate, lots of Americans think our real ales are warm tobacco soup. In contrast most of my Brit colleagues in the US thought British ale was far superior to anything on offer in the US. It took them a while to take to the piney richness of the bitterness. Some US brewers claim to have been inspired by UK brews but I'm yet to taste a brew from the US which accurately mimics our brown beers. I know I'm not alone, most people drink lager, only Carling has the tobacco hint and it is only drunk by the Brits. Same with Czech beer, its Brits who are huge fans but to the rest of Europe it's a bit meh. I put it to you it is you who have a palate which has been trained to enjoy the astringent tobacco kick.

[@OscarOSullivan]

@@DoupyourfliesTobacco is a taste that can be had in stout