Wye College

Description

In our new beer Wye College we pair Kentish Bullion with the US hop Mosaic to create a very special pale ale with mango, pine and blackcurrant flavours Ten miles up the road from the brewery, nestled beneath the north downs lies Wye College - the home of modern British experimental hops. Some of the most famous and widely grown hops in the world were developed here - many by E.S Salmon in the early 20th century including Q43 or Bullion in 1938 which we feature in our new pale ale: Wye College. Salmon aimed to produce hops with high resin contents and introduced American hops into his breeding programme. At the time many British brewers rejected the hops on account of their American aroma which at the time was considered brash and stinky. The mother was a wild hop from Manitoba, Canada which was open pollinated in 1918. Bullion was one of two plants selected from the resulting seedlings. The other plant was Brewers Gold. Fast-forward 80 years and British brewers (including Docker) are buying 80% of all US hop exports because they want these kinds of flavours. With this in mind forward-thinking growers like Hukins Hops are bringing back some of these older varieties. Sadly Wye College was shut by its then owner Imperial College London in 2009. The hop breeding programme happily lives on with Wye Hops Ltd who are funded by the British Hop Growers Association. Unfortunately the beautiful buildings of Wye College are likely to be divided up into expensive housing by developers although locals are campaigning to save this historic campus.