Hops, hops, hops.

The following news comes courtesy of our sometimes Herefordshire correspondant...



On the first day of September, Bitter End Brewery owner Mike and Brewer Steve, paid a visit to Pridewood Farm in Ashperton, Herefordshire at the invitation of hop merchants Charles Farhams. Farhams, based just the other side of the Malvern Hills were eager to show off the new state of the art hop kilns that have been installed at Pridewood after the old brick and timber kilns were badly damaged by fire during the 2007 season...The new kilns incorporate a greater degree of automation, reducing some of the manual work that was associated with the old kilns. The drying process itself too is computer controlled thus ensuring a better quality of end product although Pridewood's farmer Martin Powell-Tuck is still up to the early hours to keep a watchful eye over his hops -on this day, the first day of the 2009 harvest, it was Goldings that was being brought in.



It is a wonderful sight to see the bines being cut out in the field, brought by trailer to the picking shed where the hops are stripped from the bine ready to be conveyed to the kiln where they're spread over the large floors and dried such that moisture is reduced by as much as 90%.



Drying the hops increases their storage capacity, vaccum packed so that the characteristcs which make Humulus Lupulus prized to such a degree by brewers are preserved, so that they may be used the whole year round. Drying however is not nesescary for the hops to be used in a brew and we were able to obtain a quantity immediately after picking and before kilning -5kilos of the first Goldings of 2009. The hops were brought back to Cumbria and pitched to a very special brew within 24 hours of picking...keep your eye out in the Bitter End this week for G.H.B. (Green-hopped Beer) at 4% ABV -A very special beer available for a limited period of each year only.

'Special brew' and bottled beer

Firstly, may I say how good it is to be in touch and with excellent news after some period of time. The brewery has been operating at full steam for the better part of the last three months -mash tun full of the finest English malted barley Thomas Fawcetts can supply, copper boiling all steam and hops, fermenters fermenting, casks rolling. So now it is that I am able to grab a moment to let you know what has been going on.

Brewing through the heatwave last month was fun, and visitors to the pub will have sampled the thirst quenchingly pale 'Grasp the Nettle' all though June -a seasonal special back by popular demand after it was so well recieved last year. Also a brand new beer, Bitter End Wheat Beer has been available, and so good was the response from customers at the pub that we immediately brewed a second gyle of it. Here's a snap of the whole-flower hops in the hop back before running into the FV last week:



If you missed these beers however, do not dispair! After some months of pilot brewing I can present to you the first two bottled beers from our bottled beer portfolio -straight from the bottling line and 3 weeks conditioning, Lakeland Bitter and Lakeland Pale Ale ever popular at the Bitter End, and now also on your dinner table, infact anywhere you want for that matter....



...and keep your eyes peeled for very special one-off beers available only in the bottle. Something certainly to look forward to -keep an eye out at your local co-op...plans are also afoot for an online beer shop via www.bitterend.co.uk so fear not readers in the United States, but more on that later!

Seasonal beer -Dark Mild 3.7%

Mild ale is a style which has come to be associated with low ABV beers, however mild ales were simply less heavily hopped beers than their more bitter relatives, and as such became a hugely popular style in the 19th century as the workforce driving the industrial revolution took to the malty brews as a means of restoring themselves after a long day of manual labour at the coalface. Many milds in common with most beers of old were brewed to a far higher O.G. than those of today, and some milds of today still follow this recipe -I encourage the dear reader with a curious pallette to seek out the wonderful Dark Ruby Mild, ABV 6%, brewed by the Sarah Hughes Brewery of Sedgley, West Midlands.

Our own interpretation is packed full of Maris Otter pale and crystal malts, with a little chocolate malt and roasted barley...a real dark mild full of flavour with the English hop, Challenger in the copper and a good dose of whole flower hops added late, in the hopback. A fine beer to restore oneself after a long day at the grindstone, or on the fells! Enjoy!

Seasonal beer, August-September -Three Hares –ABV 3.6%

It was sad to see the passing of July and with it another year’s gyle of our seasonal brew, Wild Honey which had proved so popular, but do not despair and instead, look forward to August, and to September and console yourselves with the brewing and in the drinking of an old favourite of ours -Three Hares, a deliciously hoppy, 3.6% beer, dry hopped in the cask with a generous quantity of the flower of that most wonderful Humulus lupulus and thus yielding a fine hoppy nose. When Mike first brewed to this fine recipe, he decided upon a name inspired by a small a scene depicted in the stained glass of All Saints Church whose grand steeple reaches high above the Kirkgate rooftops across the street from the Bitter End -that of three white hares.

July Seasonal Beer -Wild Honey A.B.V. 5.5%

The last time we brewed the wonderful Wild Honey it proved so popular, it is now added to the permenant range of Bitter End seasonals, July -Wild Honey A.B.V. 5.5% -A celebration of the hard work of the populace of English bees, the beekeepers art, and hoppy pale ale.

The beer was brewed with Cumbrian honey. Allow me to suggest you obtain a jar for your own larder. If you wish to do so I point you in the direction of the Granary on Main St. and I point budding beekepers, or anyone with an interest in apiculture to the informative website of the Cumbria Beekeepers Association at www.cumbriabeekeepers.co.uk

It's after pulling glass after glass of beers like this I become convinced that the thirst of the populace of Cockermouth and its environs is wholly un-quenchable. And so, happy drinking to all who sip upon this year's Wild Honey in July, the smell of summer rainfall over freshly mown hay upon the air, and drone of the humble honey bee to the ear.

More beer styles

We are very proud to announce that further to the consistent brewing of the three Bitter End regular beers...after careful reflection and much deliberation, a program of seasonal beers is to commence.

The range reflects traditional English beer styles, while those of you with a keen eye, and love for beer festivals will still see one-off and festival brews that exhibit innovation in technique, and sometimes ingredient.

The range of seasonals...Espresso Stout (ABV 5.8% Dec-Jan) Cuddy Lugs (ABV 4.3% Feb-Mar) Dark Mild (ABV 3.6% Apr-May) Grasp the Nettle (ABV 4% June) Wild Honey (ABV 5.5% July) Three Hares (ABV 3.6% Aug-Sep) Bitter End Barley Wine (ABV 6.2% Oct-Nov)

Bees, beekepers, and brewer unite

A celebration of the hard work of the populace of English bees, the beekeepers art, and hoppy pale ale...Wild Summer Honey, with a touch of dark crystal malt for a copper hue, and First Gold hops for a fresh bitterness, is now on stillage in the Bitter End's cellar -come and have a taste, or try a glass at the Keswick Beer Festival.