“Salmon-Safe Certified” read the cardboard box that had just arrived at now-closed Brick Brewery in south-east London, dropped unceremoniously by a courier. Neither I nor the Brick team could fathom what that meant—I’d later learn that it’s a certification that agricultural products in the Pacific Northwest are grown to standards that help protect wild Pacific salmon—but we knew there was something exciting inside. This was July 2019, and I was brewing a collaboration with Brick a...| Pellicle
New Zealand hops are special. Fragrant and zesty, their unique profiles strangely represent likenesses to the famous Sauvignon Blanc wines made there—grapefruit, kiwi, gooseberry; freshly cut grass. In the 2000s, juicy, wine-like Nelson Sauvin found its place within the American craft brewing scene and became a go-to for West Coast IPAs and pale ales. Now, it’s difficult to imagine the beer world without it, as it becomes ever more embedded within the flavour profiles of modern beer style...| Pellicle
Hops arrived in Australia not long after the first colonisers arrived from Britain. Through the late 18th, and early 19th century, seedlings from the UK and Germany migrated across the world to the “new” continent’s shores, where the struggle of self-determination was stirring a thirst among the growing population. From the early 19th century onwards Australian growers attempted to produce varieties from the UK including Whitebine, Fuggles, and East Kent Goldings. These were cultivated ...| Pellicle
Hops have grown around the town of Žatec for a thousand years. After the US and Germany, no country grows more hops than the Czech Republic, and 80% of Czech hops grow near Žatec in northwest Bohemia. “It’s the best place for producing these hops,” says Josef Patzak, Executive Director of Chmelařský Institut, the hop institute in Žatec. “There are mountains 50km to the west. Clouds go above and it makes a rain shadow,” he says, meaning low rainfall and higher-than-average tempe...| Pellicle