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07-07-2013, 08:07
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The Journal of the Institute of Brewing is a gift that keeps giving. Especially now I've become temporarily obsessed with the hop industry.

One of the reasons I love its articles so much are all the tables. I'm a total sucker for tables, as you may have noticed. The more numbers the better, as far as I'm concerned.

I've collected all sorts of different numbers, but never any related to the quantities grown of each different type of hop. I find it fascinating, probably because it's new to me.

Five types of hop together accounted for around 85% of production: Goldings, Fuggle, Northdown, Challenger and Target. It's a good demonstration of the perennial popularity of Goldings and Fuggle, which have both been around for well over 100 years.

I must see if I can dig out similar figures for a more recent period. I'm sure that Goldings and Fuggle would still be popular, but I suspect that there would have been a lot of changes amongst the other varieties. If only becasue this is just when the industry went into a tailspin, with output falling to unheard levels. The greatest quantity of hops produced in any year since 1984 was 104,000 cwt.

Because the original figures were given in pockets, ot's not possible to translate them precisely to a weight. A pocket holds between 1.5 and 2 cwt., depending on the type of hop and how it's been packed. So it's hard to check if the figures are for the complete hop crop. To cross check, here are the actual production figures:




UK hop production


Year
Cwts.


1984
127,883


1985
99,814


1986
102,161


Source:


Statistical Handbook of the British Beer and Pub Association 2011, page 20.



It's clear that if the figures aren't for the whole crop, it's very close to being all of it.



UK hop production by variety 1984-1986



1986*
1985
1984


Variety
cwt
%
cwt
%
cwt
%


Goldings
12,425
15.66%
13,194
13.21%
13,259
11.14%


W.G.V.
2,511
3.17%
3,671
3.67%
3,926
3.30%


Fuggle
11,426
14.40%
12,446
12.46%
15,401
12.94%


Progress
1,191
1.50%
1,635
1.64%
1,461
1.23%


Bramling Cross
1,053
1.33%
1,661
1.66%
2,699
2.27%


Northern Brewer
240
0.30%
368
0.37%
1,293
1.09%


Wye Northdown
11,291
14.23%
14,634
14.65%
16,550
13.91%


Zenith
674
0.85%
1,044
1.05%
1,244
1.04%


Wye Challenger
11,637
14.67%
15,333
15.35%
18,006
15.13%


Wye Target
20,066
25.29%
26,966
26.99%
36,876
30.99%


Yeoman
6,273
7.91%
8,405
8.41%
6,501
5.46%


Omega
497
0.63%
152
0.15%
-
-


Others
50
0.06%
395
0.39%
1,790
1.50%


Total
79,331

99,900

119,003



Notes:


Weights calculated from pockets assuming 1.5 cwt per pocket


* Provisional figures


Source:


Journal of the Institute of Brewing, Volume 93, Issue 3, May-June 1987, page 209.



More, tables, I know. Don't worry, I'm sure it's just a phase I'm going through.

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