Meantime Brewing to harvest “urban hop gardens” across City
London craft brewer, Meantime Brewing, planted hundreds of hop plants across London earlier in the year in a bid to engage people with the art of British brewing. The hops have flourished over the summer months and the bumper harvest will be used to create the City’s first “crowd-sourced” beer, and one that reflects a true “flavour” of the capital.
The brewery has planted the hops in some of London’s most famous locations – including two Royal parks – St James’ Park and Regent’s Park, The Natural History Museum, The National Theatre, Battersea Power Station and The Roof Gardens.
Dozens of pubs have also contributed to the brew having grown hops in their gardens, on balconies and rooftops – some have even taken over space in the bar. The Meantime brewers are also growing plants in allotments and urban gardens across the capital.
Once harvested, the hops will be used to give a true “flavour of London” to the beer, which will be made at Meantime’s cutting edge brewery. The name of the brew will be crowd-sourced, with members of the public encouraged to suggest names via Twitter and Facebook.
The hops will be used to create a ‘wet hop’ harvest beer at the Meantime Brewery in Greenwich. Hops have been critical to the growth of modern craft brewing; the diverse variety available has enabled brewers to be more creative in the beers they produce.
Ready to drink by the end of the year; the brew will be available in pubs around London to be enjoyed by those who have contributed to its making.
The move comes as London is experiencing a dramatic revival of interest in brewing – with around 40 breweries of varying scales now making beer in the capital. Only five years ago the industry had all but died out with just a handful of working breweries left. Meantime hopes that the move will get more of the public interested in London’s brewing heritage, as well as with the modern industry that is thriving across the city.
Nick Miller, Meantime’s CEO:
“London is an exciting place to be a brewer right now. The variety of ingredients at our disposal is huge and it allows us to pack flavour into our beer. More than ever, the public are interested in ingredients and where they come from – the hop gardens have got people talking and asking questions about how their beer is brewed.
“While brewing was an industry that declined to an almost terminal point in London during the 1990s, a new generation of modern craft businesses has got it back on its feet and there are some fantastic beers that are bold, full of flavour and character – just like the city itself. The true brew of London is about championing our Capital’s rich brewing heritage. “
Alastair Hook, the Meantime Brewmaster who has been brewing in the Capital for over 20 years and has been a leading light in the revival of beer-making in the city said:
“We’re Londoners at heart. Our beer is rooted in this town’s colourful brewing past, both in flavour and in character, but also in attitude. We’ve been growing hops with people and outlets that share our passion for this fine City and hope doing has got a few more people excited about the quiet revolution going on in beer making.”
“This will be a beer made by Londoners, for Londoners.”
To see the location of each hop garden, take a look at the following map:
http://goo.gl/maps/GJKY9 . To find out how each hop garden is getting on, visit Meantime’s Facebook page:www.facebook.com/
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