Green in more ways than one – our Green Hop brew!

As a sustainable brewery that celebrates local provenance, the annual Green Hop brew is always an exciting prospect for the Hobsons team. Locally grown Challenger hops are added into a Green Hop brew the same day they’re picked, resulting in a truly fresh green hopped beer. We want to take you through the story…

7am – Brewing begins

The brewers start the Green Hop brew at the crack of dawn, the same as any other beer. Milled malted barley flows into a mash tun, where hot water is added. This creates a very sweet-smelling mixture brewers call mash. Mash results in a sugary wort that is filtered for the next stage of the brewing process. Two Green Hop brews are brewed simultaneously at our aptly named big and small brewery, one for cask and another for bottle.

9am – Hop pick-up

Whilst the brewers are working through the initial brewing stages, one of our drivers pops down to Brook House Hops in Tenbury Wells, just 15 minutes down the road from us, to collect freshly picked Challenger hops. We have worked with Brook House Hops as a hop supplier for many years now and value our relationship with them as a quality hop supplier that happens to be so close to Hobsons!

11am – Back to the brewery!

By 11am the hops have been collected and returned to the brewery, along with some hop bines our pub customers request every year to decorate their bars with. The Challenger hops are supplied in 5kg sacks and we use 23 sacks in a Green Hop cask brew.

1pm – The magic happens

Just after lunch, fresh Challenger hops are added into the brew. The brewers begin to untie the hop sacks and one by one, add them into the brew at the kettle stage. Once all hops are added, the brew is given a stir and left to boil for about half an hour, to allow all the oils from the fresh hops to infuse into the beer. Think of it in the same way as leaving a teabag to brew for a couple of minutes before removing it, to ensure maximum flavour!

1:30pm – Fermentation time

Once the hops have boiled away for half an hour, the brew is transferred into a fermentation tank, where the beer continues to develop flavour and the desired abv. After a week of fermenting, the cask brew is racked – this is when the beer is transferred from the 7,000-litre holding tank into casks, ready for delivery to our on-trade customers.

Bottling

A couple of weeks later, the second Green Hop brew is filtered. This controls the level of yeast in the beer ensuring a perfect bottled conditioned brew, then it’s bottled. Once bottled, Green Hop goes into a warm conditioning room for 10-14 days, allowing the beer to ferment in the bottle. It’s all about getting the right fizz and optimum taste!

Once Green Hop bottles have finished conditioning, they are ready to make their way out to trade customers and be sold to you online! This year’s Green Hop bottles are available now, why not give it a try?