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Jim O'Conner
Advanced Member
Username: Roguejim
Post Number: 705
Registered: 06-2003
Posted From: 216.239.160.71
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 06:04 pm: | 
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This is an email received this morning from Darron Welch, head brewer at Pelican Brewery in Oregon. I asked him whether he uses imported British hops or domestoc equivalents in his British ales. The reply is below...
Hello Jim,
I have had too many beers ruined by crappy English hops to ever use them again. Even as a commercial brewery purchasing relatively large amounts of hops, the imported English hops I have gotten over the years have been of variable quality. Varying, that is, from mediocre to garbage. English hop processing is substandard, sloppy, unrefrigerated and unreliable. On top of that, hops from England will spend months unrefrigerated before getting shipped to the US, and you can bet that the freight is unrefrigerated, too.
In short, I have nothing good to say about English hops, except that they have some wonderful hop varieties that make great beer when you get the hops in peak condition.
To get those varieties in peak condition, I use domestically grown English varietals such as Fuggle and Golding. The hops are processed immediately upon harvest at the farm, baled and sent to cold storage within days or even hours of picking and drying. American hop processing absolutely leads the world in efficiency and absolute quality. While no hops are immune from staling and or storage issues, the chance of getting American hops that are stale or cheesy is much lower than that of English hops, where I can virtually guarantee that you will find problems.
Some other hop varieties that work nicely in an English style beer are Glacier, Willamette and Santiam. These are all American bred varieties with aroma and flavor profiles similar to English varieties. Willamette is bred from Fuggles, while Santiam is actually bred from German lineage ( Hallertauer and Tettnang). Glacier is a relatively new hop (released in 2000) with very "English" flavor and aroma characteristics, but the lineage of the hop is not public information. For all sorts of useful information about different hop varieties, you can use this link to view the Hopunion variety handbook http://www.hopunion.com/hopunion-variety-databook.pdf
Hop all this helps, good luck and Brews To You!
Darron Welch
Head Brewer
Pelican Pub & Brewery
"Champion International Brewery"
Australian International Beer Awards 2005
"Small Brewpub of the Year"
Great American Beer Festival 2000 & 2005
----- Original Message -----
Jim
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Hophead
Senior Member
Username: Hophead
Post Number: 2265
Registered: 03-2002
Posted From: 167.4.1.38
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 07:12 pm: |
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Good info Jim, thanks!
I get kent goldings from UK with no problems (much smaller scale!), but always get stale hops from NZ with pacific gem, bummer. |
Denny Conn
Senior Member
Username: Denny
Post Number: 5824
Registered: 01-2001
Posted From: 140.211.82.4
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 07:23 pm: |
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In general, I'm pretty happy with continental hops as long they're pellets. I wonder which version Darron was referring to? IIRC, he mainly uses pellets.
LIfe begins at 60...1.060, that is.
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Vance Barnes
Senior Member
Username: Vancebarnes
Post Number: 2407
Registered: 03-2003
Posted From: 208.49.148.10
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 30, 2006 - 08:16 pm: |
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I've used UK grown "plug" hops that were in excelent condition. Sounds like we may get better quality UK hops on a small scale than they do buying large quantities. |
Martin Ostendorf
Junior Member
Username: Dutchie
Post Number: 34
Registered: 09-2003
Posted From: 192.87.3.14
| | Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 07:13 am: |
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I'm Dutch (from the Netherlands) - our neigbouring Germans always state: bei uns ist alles besser. I sometimes read similar statements from Americans (in america everything is better/bigger etc). Anyway, I recently purchased 4x11 lbs of cascade, chinook, crystal and columbus from Puterbaugh Farms, Mabton, WA. They were sent in June so I guess they are from last year's harvest. I was informed that the hops were not stored in a cool place. They were also shipped without cooling.
The looked great and smelled fantastic, the APA's I brewed with them have not yet been bottled.
In this case, you Americans are lucky: european equivalents of some hops are grown in America. Disappointingly, this is not the case the other way around and we have to purchase american hops in america. |
Denny Conn
Senior Member
Username: Denny
Post Number: 5831
Registered: 01-2001
Posted From: 140.211.82.4
| | Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 05:31 pm: |
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Wanna see some REALLY fresh hops? Here are pics from Hop Madness last weekend...
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcsXDJmzbsWLnQ¬ag=1
LIfe begins at 60...1.060, that is.
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davidw
Senior Member
Username: Davidw
Post Number: 1591
Registered: 03-2001
Posted From: 65.163.6.62
| | Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 05:43 pm: |
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Who's the hippie in pic 39, IMG_5273 ?
 |
Miker
Advanced Member
Username: Miker
Post Number: 556
Registered: 02-2003
Posted From: 69.15.183.207
| | Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 06:58 pm: |
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"I'm Dutch (from the Netherlands) - our neigbouring Germans always state: bei uns ist alles besser. I sometimes read similar statements from Americans (in america everything is better/bigger etc)."
That's funny because over here in the U.S. I work with several Dutch growers in the greenhouse industry and the saying here is "If it ain't Dutch it ain't much"
We are kidding with them because they are always bragging about the Dutch technology.
But, we know full well that the Dutch are the leaders in this field. |
Denny Conn
Senior Member
Username: Denny
Post Number: 5833
Registered: 01-2001
Posted From: 140.211.82.4
| | Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006 - 06:58 pm: |
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Too old to be me! ;)
LIfe begins at 60...1.060, that is.
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Marlon Lang
Advanced Member
Username: Marlonlang
Post Number: 619
Registered: 03-2003
Posted From: 68.155.71.39
| | Posted on Friday, September 01, 2006 - 12:30 am: |
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Denny:
An observation from the Deep South:
Ain't no women! |
Denny Conn
Senior Member
Username: Denny
Post Number: 5838
Registered: 01-2001
Posted From: 140.211.82.4
| | Posted on Friday, September 01, 2006 - 06:59 pm: |
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Marlon, actually there were quite a few women there...more this year than ever!
LIfe begins at 60...1.060, that is.
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Brews and Views Archive 2006 
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