Bishop Hop Trial

I ordered a big batch of malt and hops from The Malt Miller recently. Whilst I was shopping I noticed that they have a whole range of experimental English hops. I’m not generally prone to impulse buying, but I make an exception where making beer is concerned. So I dropped three different ones in my shopping basket.

They were:

Archer – described as “apricot, peach and floral”

CF103 – described as “peppery, spicy and floral”

Bishop (CF114) – described as “earthy/honey”

So what’s with “English experimental hops”? England has a great heritage of hop growing and a good number of classic varieties that have been used for many years, such as Fuggles, Goldings, Challenger, Progress, Northdown and Bramling Cross. Why do the English growers feel they need to create new varieties?

The answer is down to the craft beer revolution. Many British craft breweries (and increasingly the larger breweries too) are using non-English hops which offer all sorts of different flavours. English hops give you floral, fruity and earthy flavours, but elsewhere you can get citrus, spicy, peppery, piney, resiny and herbal.

I think the international varieties are putting pressure on English growers to deliver a wider range of flavours. So they have been working on experimental varieties over recent years, and these are just starting to come to the market. Which is great for brewers – home brewers or commercial.

Anyway, back to my new experimental hops. The plan is to make a brew using each one, with a fairly simple malt bill so that we can focus on tasting the hops.

We made the first of these brews last Sunday, using the Bishop hops.

The recipe was as follows:

Grain bill

Maris Otter      4000g (83.3%)

Biscuit malt      400g (8.3%)

Torrified wheat 400g (8.3%)

Hop Schedule

First Gold             (8.1% AA) 26g 60min  (19 IBU)

Bishop                  (4.5% AA) 25g 60min  (10 IBU)

Bishop                  (4.5% AA) 25g 10min  (4 IBU)

Bishop                  (4.5% AA) 25g flamout

Bishop                  (4.5% AA) 25g dry hop at end of fermentation, 5 days

Water treatment: In 32 litres, 1.8 tsp gypsum

Yeast: WYeast 1318 London Ale III  (yeast cake from previous brew)

Batch size: 23l

Mash temp: 66C

Mash time: 60 min

Boil time: 60 min

OG: 1.044

IBU: 33

Colour: 6.7 Lovibond, 8 SRM, 16 EBC

Target FG: 1.012

Target ABV: 4.2%

The brew went fine, except that we forgot to put in the irish moss! Irish moss is added to the wort during the boil to cause the proteins to precipitate out, improving clarity. We’ve forgotten it once or twice before and it makes a big difference. So we’re expecting a tasty but rather hazy beer. That doesn’t really matter to be honest because it won’t affect the flavour or aroma of the beer at all.

We’re looking forward to trying Bishop’s earthy and honey flavours in a few weeks.