Have you noticed that nobody cares about about oasts.?
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Some of you will be pleased to know that my keeping-busy-during-the-lockdown experiment to look at one beer-related story in more detail than previously done here (or almost anywhere else, so far as I know) was already coming to an end.
With two of the last six aspects planned (i.e. the former Guinness hop farms at Bodiam and the Hadlow maltings) already covered, I hope that forbearance will be shown by those who may wish to avert their eyes for the last four items in order that the 'narrative arc' may be completed.
However, I think the idea of looking at some facet of the history of beer or pubs in more detail is a good one, so why doesn't somebody else give it a go? Breweries and brewing? Malt and maltings? Pub architecture and architects? Listed pubs? Community pubs? Pub rock? Pub signs? Beer bottle labels? Beer mats? The possibilities are almost endless.
The best-known hop production facility in the country must be the former Whitbread Hop Farm at Beltring, with four iconic Victorian oasts (known as Bells 1 to 4) each with five kilns. These were actually built by a local farmer, Mr E.A. White, before they were sold to the brewery in 1920. Whitbread later added another five-kiln oast (Bell 5) of a more modern integral design and also purchased several nearby farms with their traditional buildings.
Now a tourist attraction of sorts, it is difficult to appreciate the scale of the site and take photographs unless you pay for entry, and it is currently closed for the pandemic anyway. However, there is plenty of material about it on the internet, including here: Oast House Archive.
We did walk past the back of the farm last week to see what could be seen of the former hop gardens.
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Sadly just featureless plains like this, with no indication of their proud history...
Having mentioned the largest and most impressive group of oasts in the country (and probably, with little or no exaggeration, the world), it must be worth a look at the oddest before I finish.
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I was reminded of that when we walked past this minor oddity a couple of weeks ago, featuring a strange-looking circular shallow-pitched roof with the cowl missing. As building styles can be very local, this could mean that what we were looking for might be somewhere nearby.
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With bit of assistance from the Oast House Archive site and Google Maps / Street View, we tracked down this 'bottle neck' kiln and cowl - one of the strangest buildings in Britain.
An important milestone in the hop-growing year is when the bines first reach the wirework trellis.
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This hop garden is showing even and vigorous growth at the end of May, way ahead of anything else we've seen in this very dry spring, so the micro-climate must be ideal here.
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Another view taken on the same same day at another farm a couple of miles away, with only the strongest bines in this parched hop garden just touching the wires (with most others well behind).
For my last post on this thread for the time being, this oast is of special interest to me since it's the only one I've worked in, albeit just for one September and many decades ago...
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Long since converted, of course, but a very valued experienced for a (then) young beer drinker.