Hoppily Ever After

One of the (many) interesting things about beer are the seemingly endless possibilities when it comes to combinations of  hops, malt and yeast (as well as other ingredients, of course) that help to create such tasty concoctions!

I enjoy drinking single hop beers in order to try and distinguish the different aromatic qualities and flavours that each hop can bring and therefore hopefully become a more discerning drinker. It’s certainly easier and more objective to judge these qualities when the single hop beers concerned are part of a series where the malt recipe is the same and where the same yeast and same quantity of hops have been used to brew the beer.

A new English hop variety called Endeavour has been used by a few breweries, but hasn’t really taken off as of yet. I was lucky enough to recently sample a (single hop) beer brewed with Endeavour hops. The beer concerned comes from the Magpie Brewery in Nottingham, England. The brewery is located near the home of the oldest professional football club in the world, Notts County FC. Notts County wear black and white and are nicknamed the magpies, so it doesn’t take a maestro to work out where the inspiration for the brewery name came from!!

A little bit of trivia for you here!! It’s because of Notts County that Juventus wear black and white!

Very little information can be found on the internet about this new hop variety, but I did find this.

The UK National Hop Association now has a breeding programme run on its behalf by Wye Hops. Most recently off the blocks is a new variety, Endeavour, which has just reached the farm trials stage. With a distinct citrus note, it provides a unique flavour for an English-grown variety and has been likened to some of the imported flavour hops from the US. Endeavour is only available in limited quantities whilst it is being established on a few farms. Like many of the flavour hops, it has an alpha-acid content well above that considered typical of a classical aroma hop.

The beer I sampled was called Hoppit, but has recently changed its name to Hoppily Ever After following some legal action from another brewery that owns the copyright to Hoppit. The beer weighed in at a modest 3.8% and was golden with a slight haze and a white head. I could detect lemon and honey (similar to some throat sweets called lockets) in the aroma, as well as some biscuity malt. The taste also offered honey and lemon and was very refreshing. Above all, I found it to be an enjoyable and refreshing brew.

It’s difficult to judge this hop based on this one beer as I am not sure about the quantity of Endeavour hops that were used in this brew (especially as it has been likened to American hops), but I shall endeavour (no pun intended!) to try more beers hopped with this variety in future, and hope that more breweries try to experiment with it.

by Matt Williams