Loughran Brewers Select UK Fresh Green Hops 2024

In September we had the fantastic opportunity to take part in an exciting project celebrating the UK hop harvest. It was spearheaded by our Southern UK Sales Manager Jethro Duarte-Holman, who’s given some background on just what went into getting fresh English hops from a hop farm in Kent to brewers throughout the UK. Over to you, Jethro:

UK Fresh Hops from Kent

Green hops. A Kentish institution, a tradition, a celebration of harvest. I’m a Kentish man, and very proud of it, when I was a teenager, my dad used to take me to green hop festivals and slip me sips. This isn’t a blog about the merits of giving 16-year-olds real ale, we’ll leave that for another time. It’s my musings on our UK fresh green hop project for hop harvest 2024 and getting involved in one of my favourite brewing traditions.

While I was trying different green hop beers and pretending to like them so I could stay in the pub or at the CAMRA festival with the grownups, my dad would wistfully talk to his pals about the how great it was that we were from Kent and had access to beers that could only exist at this time of year, and only for locals. He’d tell me the flavour was different and that you could really taste the freshness, at the time I didn’t really care to be honest, J2O and Mini Cheddars was my order. That was then though, things have gone full circle, now I get it, big time. I’m a green hop man.

Minimally Processed Hops

Hop harvest is a beautiful thing and using hops that are so minimally processed is a special thing that can only happen within a 24-hour window of picking. We’ve come a long way with the way we process hops: leaf, T90, CGX cryogenic lupulin pellets, liquid hop products etc, but green hop is the outlier. You can’t strip a hop back any further, and that’s why it’s wonderful.

Logistical Challenges of Brewing with Fresh Green Hops

In days gone by, it tended to just be brewers within a small radius of the hop farms that would brew with green fresh hops. Fresh hops fade fast, and this limited window of freshness meant there were a lot of English brewers around the country who didn’t have access to them in the timeframe. But times change, and logistics continue to get slicker and slicker. So we chatted with our good pals at Hukins Hops, in Kent. Hukins Hops grow award-winning hops – some of the most beautiful hops in the UK –  and their attention to detail and quality really shines. Glenn (our man there) proposed that it might be the case that with some planning and one hell of a spreadsheet, he could organise for us to get hops sent on a pre 10AM next day delivery out to brewers. This would mean that anyone DHL could get to could brew with an English fresh green hop within 24 hours of the hop being picked. Potential varieties included Fuggle, Goldings, Challenger, Bullion, Ernest, and UK Cascade with Hukins Hops recommending that the hops went into the brew ASAP after arrival, at a rate of around 5-6kg per BBL.

Hop Picking Windows

It sounded pretty ‘easy’ but there was a fair bit of back of house planning to be done. We had to arrange with brewers to have a brew scheduled in for a set day, get their desired volume of fresh hops, and make sure we collected straight off the line before the hops went into the kiln, i.e. whilst they were still fresh and ‘wet’. Hop growers don’t choose when to pick hops, the hops do. Pick windows can be as small as a few hours when hops are in their absolute prime. Picked too early and hops will be too ‘green’, and picked too late and hops will start to over ripen and go what we call ‘OG’ (Onion Garlic). When the pick window is open, the grower gets out there and picks! It’s then straight into the line to remove bine and cones are put hops straight into kiln. The whole process means that hop cones go from hop garden to bale in a matter of hours. For this reason, we couldn’t precisely guarantee what hops were picked on set days, brewers essentially got what was ripe for their planned brew date rather than any selected variety. Initially not ideal for planning, but that’s kind of part of the fun, hop harvest is king and we’ve just gotta roll with nature.

Our fresh green hops were taken straight from the line the hop cones travelled along just before reaching the kiln, the fresh hops were packed straight into boxes by weight, and then into the back of the DHL van. With brewers scheduling in morning brews that meant the hop cones had gone from Hop Garden to kettle within 24 hours. Anywhere in the UK.

Harvesting UK Fresh Hops

I headed down for a couple of days mid harvest to lend a hand/sandbag the team at Hukins Hops. It’s full gas, all hands-on deck for the three weeks it takes to get everything in from the hop gardens and processed. Hard manual graft – noisy, hot, frantic… and smells incredible. The aroma was present from the car park as I drove in. Tractors with trailers of freshly picked hops pull in relentlessly, teams of people manually wrap hop bines onto large metal hooks which carry them into a giant picking machine which strips the cones from the bine, and the cones then shoot through the wall into a holding bin. For leaf and pelletising, the cones will then head up to the double tier kilns – easily bigger than my (2 up 2 down) house. When kilning is done, the hops are off to the baler. In my two days we worked through some Goldings, Ernest, and UK Cascade. Wonderful to smell the aromas develop and dance together as they were kilned side by side and changing through the process.

Beers Brewed with Fresh Green UK Hops

It was cool to see how many breweries we got engaged in the UK fresh green hop project from all over the country: from Cornwall, to Scotland, Wales to East Anglia. Many were from breweries that hadn’t ever brewed a Green Hop beer before. I think the fastest to be used was Howling Hops, who added Ernest straight into serving tank No. 7 and started pouring pints of ‘Fresh Hop Tropical Deluxe’ that weekend, meaning there was beer being drunk with hops picked less than 2 days before, I’ve never heard of anything like this in the UK before. Special shout out to the team at Stannary Brewing Company too, who had fresh hop Ernest into a brew of ‘Verde’, their green hop pale in double quick time and into some cans which made their way into a care package which arrived at our warehouse. Big thanks out to those folks from a happy warehouse team! There’s still green hop beers being packaged, and I’ve been getting feedback from brewers on WhatsApp over the last couple of weeks with some super positive reviews, lots referencing the differences in aroma from leaf or pellet. A brewer in Devon yesterday messaged me ‘This beer is looking like being an absolute banger – who knew British hops could be that good!’ serious, that’s some rad feedback to get, made my day, a real highlight of any project is getting something like this back.

Stannary Brewing Company ‘Verde’ 4.6% Green Hop Pale ft. fresh Ernest hops

Howling Hops ‘Fresh Hop Tropical Deluxe’ 4.4% Pale Ale ft. fresh Ernest hops

Whitstable Oyster Brewing ‘Teak’ 5.2% Green Hop ESB ft. fresh Goldings hops & ‘Brass’ 5.2% Green Hop Pale ft. fresh Ernest hops. 

Powderkeg ‘Hulk Smash’ 6.0% Green Hop IPA ft. fresh Ernest hops

Three Legs ‘Green Hop Export Pilsner’ 5.4% Green Hop Pilsner ft. fresh Challenger hops

UK Fresh Green Hops Hop Harvest 2025

We’re already hoping to carry out a fresh hop project for the UK hop harvest next year. The feedback from brewers who took part has been super positive, and we had many brewers saying they wish they could have got involved if I’d have given them more notice to plan schedules and beer releases. This year was a good test of concept for the project, and we’re so happy with the results. I’d say your best bet if you are keen to brew with green hops in 2025 is to let your sales manager know you’re keen and they’ll loop you in when it’s time. This year was the trial run, next year will be even bigger.

A huge thank you to Glenn and all the team at Hukins Hops for their hard work in making this happen, and for growing some beautiful hops!