As for all beers in this series, we’ve looked to take a quintessential British style and add something extra to the mix. We’ve been able to use progressively harvested and packaged hop varieties from the good folk at Hukins Hops over a 19th century grist, all in tandem with many brewers favourite brewery, Saint Mars of the Desert.
Always on the look-out for environmentally-positive developments in raw materials, we jumped at the chance to use Hukins’ low carbon hop product that they’ve been trialling. Rather than going through the fuel-heavy drying and pelletising process, these hops are shredded fresh off the vine and packaged to preserve as much of that fresh character as possible. Opening the Bullion, we got a big wave of blackcurrant squash on the nose which comes through in the beer alongside notes of lychee, apricot and orange peel from the UK Cascade and Ernest hops added at the dry hop stage.
To support the hops, we used a grist built on Chevallier, the barley of choice for the India Pale Ale brewers of the 19th century. It brings a remarkable fullness and smoothness of flavour alongside notes of fruity marmalade which perfectly complement the character of our selected UK hops.