Hoppers help Hop Harvest prep!
With only weeks to go before Hop Harvest 2025 gets underway, Matthew and the team of Hoppers are stepping up the pace!
The Hop Picker has been scoured and essential maintenance carried out.
The Picking Fingers have been given a good clean. Now all the sticky hop resin from last year’s harvest has thoroughly dried out, it is much easier to remove!
Tractor Training under the watchful eye of Matthew has started, to hone the skill of not only driving the tractor down the narrow hop alleys in the hop garden, but also reversing with the trailer to deliver the hops straight to the Hop Picker.
The Conditioning Floor – where the dried hops are left overnight before packing - has been checked ready for laying.
But there was still time to catch up over a well-deserved pint.
The new Hoppers, who haven’t experienced harvesting here at the Brewery, were invited down to the Tap for a Meet & Greet with Matthew and the experienced Hoppers, who are old hands at harvesting, having helped for many years. As ever, the Hoppers were happy to pass on some tips and share their experience.
There’s still lots more to do, including adding the new recruits to the rota, to get ready for the forthcoming harvest.
Harvest traditionally starts on the Tuesday after the August Bank Holiday. After the extraordinary year of weather so far with a hot, dry spring and our 4th heatwave of the summer, harvest will either start on Tuesday 26th August or Monday 1st September. It’s the hops themselves that will tell us when they are at their peak of freshness and ready to harvest! So watch this space.......
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