Native, wild hops in the UK

[tombear]

Could anyone direct me to where I could get wild hop seed from in the UK. It's highly possible I've got the wrong end of the stick but from what I have read on the internet that there is a native, not escapee sort of wild hops that's found in hedgerows.

Being the worlds worst forager/ identifyer of plants I wouldn't know one if it bit me but I rather fancy growing some amongst the hawthorns out back to use in small scale beer making.

I'd be happy to buy or swap seeds if anyone has them available.

Atb

tom

 

[tombear]

Found a source!

http://www.wildflowershop.co.uk/WF Indivl Seeds/WF Seeds A to L.htm#Hop

atb

tom

 

[Robson Valley]

I see dozens of varieties of hops for the brewing industry in the past 1,000 years.
Seems quite the fuss and bother to select the modern variety for the desired results.
This will be an interesting experiment using the progenitor.
What might the brew taste/smell like without hops?

 

[Janne]

I wonder if the wild version has a more pronounced, fuller flavour? I have found that the wild, original variety ( or very old ' heirloom' varieties) taste more , applies to most things we grow.
Of course a much lower yield per plant, but for a hobbyist this is not so important maybe.

 

[Janne]

Tombear, why do you not dig up a couple and replant? You need a couple as you need a male and a female plant. You will get a bigger plant quicker.

 

[Robson Valley]

I taught a piece of a botany course called economic botany. Basically staples and luxuries.
This whole business of hops has kept my attention.

 

[tombear]

Unfortunately I've never knowingly seen a wild hop and as I've mentioned at the start despite books and the help of lots of patient people I'm hopeless at identifying plants. I mean legendarily hopeless, people will probably sing songs about how bad I am in the distant future. That bad.

it looks like I may be too late anyway, the seeds need cold to be able to germinate, herself called out the process as she read from the site and it baffled me. But they do sell plugs which could go straight in. We are looking at our options....

atb

tom

 

[Janne]

Most seeds need a cold period to get started. Dillweed is one of the most notorious ones.

Place the seeds in your fridge a week or two. That will activate the little buggers!

 

[Chaard]

As a brewer and hops grower ill wade in.

Growing from seed can be risky as the hops species grow separate male and female species. The males don't grow cones for use in brewing so if you want to grow a plant for beer making then you should look online and buy hop rhizomes. I've had a few plants for years now. Very hit and miss yields though!

 

[tombear]

Cheers folk ! This is all great stuff as I'm completely new to this. The website made it sound all too complicate.

ATB

Tom

 

[bushwacker bob]

Hops arn't native to the UK. Prior to their introduction,Mugwort was used as a flavouring hence its name.

 

[Nice65]

I reckon I've been misinformed. I thought hops helped keep the beer, especially when transported.

I see a few plants each year. It's easy to spot as it just climbs up everything, particularly for me, powerline poles.

 

[tombear]

Wild hops are native, they are in the pollen records going back to at least the Neolithic, cultivated, that's a different story. It's the wild sort I'm after growing. No one really knows when they were introduced into UK beer production, there's no written records until the later Middle Ages that had recipes. Certainly the Saxons were shipping it in but that means nowt really, vast amounts of wine were shipped in despite grapes growing here since the Romans came over.

We mainly want it to experiment with and make a drink that will last longer than ales which go off really quickly. The Vikings certainly used hops for drinks and grew it in poorer climatic conditions than we had at the same time.

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Nice65: You're not wrong. Hops have several values. Flavoring is one. Another is antibacterial = organisms which would ruin the beer.

 

[Joonsy]

walking a lot in the Worcestershire countryside i sometimes find hops growing in the hedgerows, with worcs having a long rich hop growing history I expect they are just escapees from commercially grown stock, i didn't know there were native hops to the uk, it's said hops were introduced to england sometime in the 1500s for brewing, if we had wild native hops prior to the introduced ones i do question why the native ones weren't used instead. Either way i have no idea which type the ones i see growing in the hedgerows are but suspect they and most ones people see are just escapees. Supposing there are native hops how can one identify them from the introduced ones?

Worcestershire is famed for it's hop picking, only last week i took a walk down memory lane at Suckley in Worcs as my parents were hop pickers there after the war, there is a church at Rochford worcs whose gates are entwined with ornamental metal hops, this link shows the gates but you can't really see the hops very well http://www.temevalleysouth.org.uk/rochford/ Only the female plants are used for brewing, the young shoots on the plant are nice to eat.

Anyone interested in hops might find the following link useful, click on the various tabs at top of page or click on the Brewing Society website link at bottom of page about the history of hops for brewing:- http://www.britishhops.org.uk/history-of-hops/

 

[Robson Valley]

I taught economic botany as apart of a Bio clurse for more than 20 years. My text references claimed that the use of hops in British brewing might go back to maybe 1100 or before, and, with imported hops.

I'll predict that hop culture began with a bunch of enterprising thieves who were intent on cutting out the middle man, cutting through an apparent monopoly. Only because that's the historical process for the distribution od cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, peppercorns, coffee and sugar cane, to name a few.

However, what you may find in hedge rows has not probably been subjected to the same extreme artificial selection pressures employed by breeders and driven by the brewing industry.

Just read the link. Thank you very much. I could have made great use of that to make lecture revisions, long ago.

 

[Nice65]

Joonsy, when I was at college many years ago, doing my tree idents was fairly difficult, especially winter twigs and conifers.

Those on the Groundsman course had to identify 26 different species of lawn grass. Well, to me it was all just lawn grass, but these guys were keying it out of text books, going on to work on sports grounds, golf courses etc. My point being...it isn't going to be easy to ident them. And hop seed is feather light and well distributed by wind.

 

[tombear]

Seeds ordered and about to be posted. Should be here by the end of the week.

As climbers they don't harm trees they use do they?

we have a south facing gable end, three floors and the pitched part high. Could run some lines up as well?

ATB

Tom

 

[Robson Valley]

Hops don't seem to have any obligate parasitic nature. Nobody comments on colateral damage done by vines in hedge rows.
The climbing nature of the vines has been conserved in the modern varieties which I see trained on wires.
You might need to consider harvesting techniques if the tops are 3 floors up.