My first hands on experience of hops had nothing at all to do with brewing. Rather it was as a morris dancer performing at the Faversham Hop Festival in Kent. There would be trailer loads of freshly cut hop bines which visitors would buy to use as decorations. I myself would always make sure to have a garland of hops around my morris man’s top hat, and even then I thought they smelled amazing. Now, of course, hops are an essential part of my working life.
The Charles Faram company has been a hop supplier for over 150 years. However they are much more than that. They also supply a wide range of other products essential to the brewing industry. Since starting Bríd’s Cross Brewing, I have been buying my malt and hops from Faram’s.
A few months ago I saw mention of AromaFest in Faram’s monthly trade newsletter and I was intrigued – especially as one of the events was taking place virtually on my door step in Manchester. Without really knowing what to expect I singed up to attend.
On arriving at the venue – Northern Monk’s Manchester Refectory – I saw a small group of unfamiliar faces. I perched nervously on a high stool and wondered what I had let myself in for. Happily, it was only a couple of minutes until Ryan walked in. Ryan works as a production brewer at Holt’s brewery and I had met him at another event last year. Ryan introduced me to a few other people he knew and, not suffering from my imposter syndrome, other people he himself was meeting for the first time.
Eventually, there were around 40-50 brewery professionals gathered and Beth, Faram’s north-west rep, led us into another room where the business of the day was to take place. Will Rogers, Faram’s Group Technical Director, explained that the day was part of Faram’s Hop Development Program.
Every year Faram’s create dozens of new hop varieties, by crossing exisiting varieties. These are assessed for a wide variety of factors, including resistance to disease and ease of cultivation. Some of these are then grown on and harvested in order to assess their flavour and aroma potential.
At AromaFest we had 26 different hop vaieties to assess and give feedback on. To do this we rubbed the hop cones between our palms to release the essential oils that give hops their aroma, we then sniffed them, and had to rate them according to the intensity of their aroma and how much we liked them, finally we had to describe the aromas we could smell.
My first two takeaways from the day were that hops are even more oily and sticky than I had ever realised, and that identifying and describing the differences between some hop varieties in not easy!
Other notable points about the day were that most people in the industry are very friendly and welcoming to a newcomer like me, and that I never had a day quite as relaxed and enjoyable as this in my 25 year teaching career. I won’t deny that a couple of tasty pints, courtesy of the nice people at Northern Monk and Charles Faram, certainly went down very well.
