In early September the 2 brewers from 8 Sail, Tony & Steve, were invited, along with about 200 other brewers, to the Hop Harvest Open Day at Pridewood Farm, Ashperton, Hereford and Fenman was pleased to be able to tag along.

The day began with visits to the various trade stands exhibition which featured not just the hops side of brewing but also malts and yeast producers and related services. Talks by various experts in the hop business then followed. Charles Faram's representative in the US informed the gathering that their hop harvest/ season has to endure 40c heat and America imports hops mainly from Germany and Britain. Ali Cappra, hop grower, stressed the need for brewers to use more home grown hops - we currently import hops from Germany, America, Slovenia and New Zealand (corporate lager brewers are not using any British hops). Pilgrim hops were promoted as against US Magnum and Columbus. British brewers being the most important (customers) to British hop growers.

A tour of the hop fields (mainly Fuggle and Golding) then followed where hop pickers were hard at work and then a look at the processing and machinery at the hop farm. There were also beers to sample, from Wye Valley, 6 Bells, Pope's, Bewdly, and Greene King - with a cask of each beer brewed with usual dried hops and also one with green hops or hop oils; with the difference in tastes between the two styles being significant in some of the beers.

Tony and Steve duly collected their sacks of green hops and set about brewing with them back at Heckington the next day.

8 Sail Brewery will be holding their Wild 'n' Green beer festival from Friday 3rd - Sunday 5th October - see branch diary on the website for further details.