This is our second blend of Fresh Hop and our first for two years. Our aim this time was to combine the raw green flavours of the freshly picked hops, with the wonderful aromatics of fresh malt in our barrels of raw, unboiled, spontaneously fermented beer.

The wort for this blend was made with solely floor-malted heritage Maris Otter barley malt from Warminster Maltings. Their traditionally made malt is germinated within the ambient temperatures of their malt floors, in-line with our practices of fermenting and maturing our beers only at the ambient temperatures of our cellar rooms.

The wort was left untouched to spontaneously ferment in old Bourbon whiskey and Scotch whisky barrels for 18 months. On Thursday 12th September 2024 we drove an hour north to visit hop merchants Charles Faram, where we were delighted to be able to collect one of our favourite hop varieties, Challenger. The hops had been picked earlier that morning, so we hot-footed it back to our brewery yard to get the wonderfully aromatic Challenger into the blending tank, before pumping in the chosen barrels.

Bottling took place the next day to ensure we only extracted the most desirable aromatics from the hops. Longer steep times extract more, but not necessarily better flavours. The beer conditioned in bottle for five months before release. As with all our dry-hopped beers, these aromatics will evolve quite dramatically over time.

The finished beer is unlike anything we have tasted before. Top notes of lime, cut grass, and ginger. Followed by unbaked sourdough and, from a brewer's perspective, the smell of a bag of Maris Otter malt. The beer is poised, light, and effervescent on the palate.