TALL TALES

“...there is really no denying that hops bring the sexiness to your pint.”

CAPE OF GOOD HOPS

IT’S A PLANT WHICH GROWS – VERTICALLY – UP TO 20 FEET IN A YEAR! AND ITS LATIN NAME SOUNDS LIKE A SPELL WHICH HARRY POTTER AND HIS HOGWARTS WIZARDING COHORTS WOULD MUTTER: HUMULUS LUPULUS! LUCY CORNE INVESTIGATES THE HUMBLE HOPS.

If you ask the average beer drinker to name the four ingredients in beer, most will come up with hops first. Even nonbeer drinkers tend to think of hops before malted barley, yeast or the most abundant ingredient, water. And yet, few of those people would be able to tell you exactly what hops are or what they do to a beer. Hops weren’t always on the menu when it came to brewing. In fact one of the earliest scientific mentions of hops was by a Benedictine nun in the 12th century – thousands of years after the first beer was brewed. But it would be another couple of centuries before hops would take over from gruit, a blend of herbs and spices used to lend bitterness and flavour to beer. Hops took a while to catch on but they boasted an added benefit: antibacterial properties that helped preserve the beer – crucial in a prerefrigeration world.

SOUTHERN PASSION So what is a hop? These climbing plants tend to grow best between the 45th and 55th parallels north, needing long summer days to reach their potential. But it is possible to grow hops outside this region and indeed, hops have successfully been cultivated in South Africa since the 1930s. It all began because of a hop shortage brought on by WWI. Local brewers decided they need to be more self-sufficient and began growing hops in the Outeniqua Valley near George – a region chosen for its temperate climate.

Fast forward a few decades and varieties bred especially for South African conditions began to appear, starting with Southern Brewer, later followed by hops called Southern Star, Southern Promise, Southern Passion and more recently, African Queen. These varieties – and numerous others – are grown on 10 farms. Most of the farms are privately owned, but the entire crop goes to South African Breweries Hop Farms (SABHF) to be processed and either sold or used in SAB’s brews.

Hop production here remains entirely focused in the George area, where in growing season you’ll see the metres-high plants waving in the wind. The plants are grown by “hop trainers” and taught to grow up near-invisible wires so that from a distance it seems that they defy gravity. South Africa’s hop farmers tackle our comparatively short summer days with bright lights, shone on the plants to extend their growing time.

STOP AND INHALE Hops have long been lauded for their bittering properties, but since craft beer began to revolutionise the way we drink the amber nectar, hops are increasingly used for their flavour and above all, aroma. This shift in beer appreciation has also seen a shift in hop production both

globally and in South Africa. Some 140 of South Africa’s 200-or-so microbreweries purchase hops from SABHF, and this has started to shape the hop breeders’ focus. Where local hops were long grown principally to use for bittering, the breeders are now thinking about aromas and flavours when they create new varieties. Most sought after are the citrus-like and tropical fruit aromas most often associated with American hops. If you’ve ever stuck your nose into a glass of pale ale or IPA and received a nostril full of granadilla, orange rind, lychee or mango, then that would be the hops talking.

One of South Africa’s best known hop breeders has since shifted her focus to farming, but Beverley Ann Joseph has had a lasting effect on the local hop scene. “Once I started working on the breeding programme, hops took over my life,” she recalls fondly. “I was no longer cultivating an ingredient for beer; I was living, breathing and speaking hops. I forced hops into every conversation, dragged them along on holidays, and 10 years later we released three new highly soughtafter flavour varieties.”

Joseph continues to be a much-respected figure in the South African hop industry. After a decade working first with hops and later with malt, the opportunity arose to buy her own hop farm and in 2016 she became South Africa’s first female hop farmer, growing some 20 hectares on her Outeniqua farm.

HARVEST TIME When it comes to the global hop stage, South African farmers are mere extras, faces in the crowd. South African hop production counts for less than 1% of the world’s production, although hop growing here is on the up. Acreage is gradually increasing and the goal is to up production from 850 tonnes per year to 1 000 in 2020. Most of the crop is, of course, used by SAB, with the rest going to craft brewers and a small portion reserved for export.

The hop harvest takes place in late February and early March, when pickers perched atop tractors release the plants from their trellises with a swift blow from a panga or machete. From here the hops are sorted and the flowers, or cones as they are also known, are separated from the stems and leaves. From here it’s straight to the oast house, where the hops are gently dried. It’s a crucial part of the process, for the plants will begin to rot within hours if they are not properly dried. Some brewers use whole hops in their brews, although most prefer to work with pellets, which to the untrained eye look a little like fish food – but smell a whole lot better.

Once the hops make their way to the brewers, they are added at various stages of the brew. Hops added early in the boil will lend bitterness to the beer. Those thrown in towards the middle of the boiling process will contribute flavour, while the hops tossed in at the end offer big aromas. These days, craft brewers are all in search of the ultimate aroma and will often hop again once fermentation is complete. Dry-hopping, as this is known, offers an extra wonderful whiff to the finished beer.

It’s not a particularly pretty flower, all things considered, but there is something about the hop that just grabs hold of people. No other ingredient spawns so many t-shirt slogans, social media handles or fabulously puntastic beer names (think Hopportunity Knocks, Tricerahops, Hoptimus Prime). When it comes to beer ingredients, malt brings the body, colour and plenty of flavour, water brings the refreshment and yeast brings the alcohol, but there is really no denying that hops bring the sexiness to your pint.

ABOVE: Winding its way inexorably upward, the hops plant is trained along vertical wires. Image source: SAB