LOCAL GARDENING COMMUNITY MERGE TO BREW ONE-OFF HOP BEER

Local gardening community merge to brew one-off green hop beer

The community that surrounds Bluestone Brewing Company in Newport, Pembrokeshire, have recently turned their hand to brewing and created a one off green hop beer using hops grown in their own gardens.

The brewery, based at Tyriet Farm in Cilgwyn, is regularly used as a meeting place for the local gardening club, where the members swap seeds, plants and advice for their gardens.

Last year, the brewery decided to try it’s hand at a one off ‘Organic Green Hop Beer’. The principle was to produce a once yearly green hop beer with the help of the local community.

Bluestone Brewing Company purchased the plants for the gardening club members. One single variety was chosen – Cascade; a hop known for it’s citrus and grapefruit type flavours. Members were then asked to collect their hops and take them home to grow.

Now, two years down the line, the community has harvested their hops and brewed their first ever community hop beer. With this beer, it’s necessary to brew within 24 hours of harvest as the hops, once picked, go off quickly. One local gardener, David Sears, was on hand to help the brewer get all the hops into the mash tun as there were a lot of hops to get through.

Simon Turner, owner of Bluestone Brewing Co said:

“We were amazed at how many hops we had for the brew, you never really know whether a project like this will work, but everybody did such a good job and managed to grow so many more hops than we had expected. The beer tastes great and it’s been good fun making it too.”

The community hop growers helped to come up with the name and artwork for the bottle label and the brewers created the recipe. The chosen name was “Outcrop”, this name will then stick with this beer for any future brews – a lasting community legacy.

Each gardener that contributed has received their very own box of Green Hop Beer! The rest of the beer is now available to buy direct from the brewery or through their online shop.

Bottles available to buy online: www.bluestonebrewing.co.uk
Or direct from the brewery:

Bluestone Brewing Co, Tyriet, Cilgwyn, Newport, Pembrokeshire SA42 0QW