Hop Harvest weekend attracts record number of guests to Tongham brewery.
Surrey-based Hogs Back Brewery has celebrated its 10th hop harvest, with a record number of more than 4,200 revellers flocking to the brewery in Tongham near Farnham for live music, family entertainment, beer and street food over three days of festivities.
The Hop Harvest celebrations followed two weeks of harvesting in the hop garden next to the brewery, where the team of Hogs Back Hoppers worked hard through sunshine and rain to bring in the crop. The hop hangar, where the hops are processed and dried at optimum freshness, was transformed on Friday night into a party space for the crowds who gathered over the weekend to watch a diverse line up of bands, including Saturday’s headliners, Britpop tribute band Blurasis.
The entertainment started with a sold-out ‘Roots’ concert of original music, headlined by Newton Faulkner, a graduate of Guildford Academy of Contemporary Music. On Saturday, bands played the Festival stage from 2.30 – 11.00 with six sets offering everything from indie folk from The Dunwells to the classic blues rock of Wille and The Bandits. Compere and comedian, Patrick Monahan, kept people entertained as bands changed over, and performances were live streamed to the Beer Garden for those wanting a more chilled musical experience.
On Sunday, families joined in the fun of the TEA Party, with entertainment for children of all ages in the Kidzone. Activities included bungee trampolines, a climbing wall, mini Bumper Carz, archery, inflatable slides, farmyard animals and the children’s entertainer, Hop The Twig, as well as the ever-popular dray rides around the Hop Garden. There was music for the younger crowd too, with Kaylie as Taylor Swift topping the bill.
Across the weekend, guests enjoyed the full range of Hogs Back beers, including Green TEA, variation of the brewer’s flagship Tongham TEA, brewed with fresh ‘green’ hops straight from the hop garden, as well as Surrey Nirvana, One Planet Hazy IPA and, for the first time, Dennis Hopp’r IPA from Mondo Brewing, Hogs Back’s sister brewery in south London.
Food included pulled pork, BBQ burgers and hot dogs, chilli nachos, dirty fries and cakes, with products sourced locally where possible. In line with Hogs Back’s ambitious sustainability aims, no single use plastics were used, replaced with reusable or compostable items.
One of the highlights of the weekend was the traditional charity fundraising, with over £3,300 collected for British Heart Foundation, Hogs Back’s chosen charity this year.
Rupert Thompson, Hogs Back managing director, said, “The Hop Harvest Party is always the highlight of our year and this year’s celebrations were extra special as we marked 10 years of hop growing.
“Over that decade, our hop garden has gone from strength to strength. Although this year’s crop wasn’t our biggest ever, largely because of wet weather early in the growing cycle, the quality of the hops is excellent, and they will add a distinctive flavour to our beers. With more hops still to be harvested this week, we’re only down 10% on last year’s volumes across the Fuggles, Cascade and Farnham Whie Bine varieties.
“As always, we are enormously grateful to our band of volunteer Hoppers who now number than 70, and who help us year-round in the hop garden. Thanks also go to estate manager Matthew King for his skilful and dedicated care of our hops.”
He added: “We planted our first hop garden in 2014 to help us become a more sustainable brewery, to bring hop farming back to the Farnham region, and to build ties with the local community. It gives me great pleasure to see how we have achieved all these goals, with the Hop Harvest celebrations a wonderful reflection of the community’s support, as local businesses and volunteers helped to make the event a success.
“We’ve already set the dates for next year’s Hop Harvest celebrations, which will run on 12th, 13th and 14th September 2025.”
Hogs Back harvested three hop varieties this year: Fuggles, used in Tongham TEA; English Cascade, used in its Hogstar lager and Surrey Nirvana Session IPA; and Farnham White Bine, a traditional local variety. The harvest provides around 60% of the brewer’s hop requirement.
Issued on behalf of: Hogs Back Brewery
By: ShielPorter Communications
Further information:
ros@shielporter.com / 07841 694137
john@shielporter.com / 07734 054389
Notes to editors
Hop Harvest weekend: full musical lineup
Roots (Friday): Luke Edney, Mim Grey, Newton Faulkner
Festival (Saturday): Gavin Thomas, John Wilson Band, The Dunwells, Willie and The Bandits,
Showhawk Duo, Blurasis
TEA Party (Sunday): The Farleys, Jungle Brew, Kaylie as Taylor Swift, Beato Burrito strolling Mariachi
Hogs Back Brewery
- Hogs Back Brewery was founded in 1992 in Tongham, in the heart of the traditional Surrey hop growing area.
- Its flagship brand Tongham TEA, or Traditional English Ale, is one of the leading regional ales in the South East. The first beer brewed by Hogs Back in 1992, Tongham TEA has won multiple awards including runner-up in CAMRA’s Champion Beer of Britain in 2000.
- The Hogs Back Brewery range includes a number of award-winning draught, bottled and canned beers, demonstrating its ability to combine brewing expertise and tradition with product innovation to create distinctive, memorable beers.
- Other brewing awards include:
- Gold medals for Little Swine 0.5% in the European Beer Challenge 2024 and the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) National Independent Beer Awards 2024
- CAMRA’s Champion Bottled Beer of Britain 2020 for its A over T (Aromas over Tongham) 9% ABV bottle conditioned barley wine
- Gold medal in the World Beer Awards 2017 for Hogstar lager
- Bronze medal in the International Cider Challenge 2019 for traditional cloudy cider, Hazy Hog.
- Earlier this year, Hogs Back won the Le May Cup for its White Bine hop in the Institute of Brewing & Distilling’s annual Hop Competition. They also received a Gold Award for their Fuggles hop and a Silver for their English Cascade. Hogs Back is the first brewer to win the Le May Cup.
- As part of its drive to become an ever more sustainable brewer, Hogs Back is aiming to eliminate single use plastic. They have introduced refillable glass Snorters (3.5 pints) and Snifters (1 ¾ pints), and to date have removed over 20,000 PETs, earning them Plastic Free Champion status from Surfers Against Sewage.
- www.hogsback.co.uk.
Hop farming in Farnham
- Farnham was historically one of the most important hop farming regions in the UK. At its peak in the 1870s, hops accounted for around 40% of the land available for farming in the parish. The Farnham area was ideal for hop growing with a rich, loamy topsoil over a chalky subsoil.
- Farnham hops commanded a premium price, with a hop pocket – 240lb of dried hops – selling for £9 – £10 in the early 1800s, compared to only £7 – £9 for Kentish hops.
- The Farnham White Bine hop was originally developed in the early 1700s just a mile and a half from the current Hogs Back brewery. It was highly prized for its quality and was the precursor variety to the better-known Kent Goldings.
- In Farnham, unlike Kent and other growing areas, farmers chose to harvest the hops before they were completely ripe, resulting in a two-week period of intense work for the pickers and a need to supplement local labour with imported labour.
- A carnival atmosphere prevailed during the hop harvest: schools were closed, church attendance fell off and shops opened on Sundays to take the money from hop pickers.
- The hops, once dried and packed down into pockets or sacks, were sold to brewers in the Farnham area and to West Country brewers, who purchased them at the Weyhill Fair near Andover.
- Hop farming in Farnham started to wane at the end of the 19th century in the face of growing competition from the Kent hops, which were preferred by London’s brewers, and the rising cost of agricultural labour. The industry declined and finally died out in the mid-1970s.
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