Hops are grown in “hop gardens” (Kent and Sussex) or “Hop yards” (Hampshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire). The “bines” or stems grow up to 20 feet each year on poles. The young shoots were wound around the poles, a process known (in Kent) as “twiddling” From the mid 19th Century the introduction […]

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

The first evidence of hop growing and drying comes from books and old records, not surviving buildings. Hops had been  used in brewing in northern Europe for centuries but hardly at all in England up until the 16th CE. Growing and drying hops was well established in Bohemia and parts […]

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes