From Rhizome to

Brewery

Humlegarden Seminar 14th September 2018

Charles Faram & Co Ltd

Charles Faram & Co Ltd

History

▪ 1865▪ Charles Faram established

▪ 1989 ▪ 3 hop varieties in stock from the UK and no other products

▪ Fuggles, Goldings, Challenger

▪ 2012▪ Charles Faram Inc formed, office based in Portland, Oregon

▪ 2014 ▪ Charles Faram Brewing Supplies created in Toronto, Canada

▪ 2016 ▪ Cold store and distribution warehouse opened in Yakima,

Washington State

Charles Faram & Co History

▪ 2018

▪ Over 140 varieties in stock from all around the world

▪ Fermentis yeast

▪ Murphy & Son brewing aids (finings, water treatments etc.)

▪ Malt (Crisp, Weyermann,)

▪ Shives and Keystones

▪ Crown caps

▪ We also have our own breeding programme to develop new hop varieties

▪ Archer

▪ Minstrel

▪ Jester

▪ Olicana

▪ Godiva

▪ CF160

CHARLES FARAM IS GROWER OWNED

The Group

Hops Grow Best Between

35 – 55 degrees latitude

Daylight hours during the hops main growing phase are critical

Over 18 hours of daylight is required for good yields

Below the 35th parallel hops can be grown but artificial light is needed

to extend the growing day.

World Hop Production

All figures expressed

as number of Hectares

grown

Hop Production

▪ Each variety is kept

“true to type” by

cloning. (Cuttings

from the original)

▪ Each seed would

produce a new

variety

Hop ProductionPreparation January - February

▪ Weed Control

Preparation March - April

▪ Stringing

Hop Production

▪ Training

▪ March - April

Hop Production

Spraying June - August

▪ Weeds

▪ Aphid & caterpillars

▪ Red Spider Mite

▪ Downy & Powdery

Mildew

▪ Unable to control

Verticilllium Wilt!

Hop Production

▪ Harvesting

▪ September

Hop Production

▪ Hops arrive at the Picking Machine

Hop Production▪ Picking Machine

▪ Stripping the vine

Hop Production

▪ Cleaning the hops

Hop Production

▪ Loading the kilns for

drying

Hop Production

▪ Drying & Baling

Hop Production

▪ Packing Pockets & Bales

Hop Production

▪ Sampling

Storage & Processing

▪ Cold Storage 3 – 7

degrees centigrade

Storage & Processing

▪ Vacuum packed Freshpak

Hop Processing

▪ Type 90 Pellets

Recent Types of Packaging

New Coldstore at Malvern Site

0° to -2°C

Assessment and Selection

▪ CF Ltd handles and sells approximately 70% of

the UK hop crop from the 3 UK grower groups

• Hawbrand hops

• Wealdon Hops

• English Hops Ltd

▪ Annual visits to supplier countries to vist

growers, make selections, assess the harvest

• Czech Republic –inc Chmelarsky Institute

• Slovenia – inc Hop Research Institute

• Germany

• Poland

• USA

Assessment and Selection

Yakima Site

Hop Production

Which Varieties to plant?

A grower’s consideration

▪ Saleability – Is the variety in demand

▪ Price that can be achieved

▪ Yield per hectare

▪ Ripening times

▪ Resistance to pest and disease

Charles Faram

Hop Development

Program▪ Main nursery site is in Herefordshire

▪ Trial plots with local farmers▪ Breaks all the rules, promising varieties are sent forward

before full disease screening is completed

▪ New varieties primarily selected on aroma

▪ 5000 seeds (separate varieties) a year

▪ 50 new varieties in advanced development ▪ 1-2 commercial varieties released a year

▪ Seedlings now planted in

▪ Kent

▪ USA

▪ Czech Republic▪ Slovenia

▪ Poland

How does our

breeding programme

work?

Year 0: Create variety Crosses

Year 1: Raising seeds and initial disease screening

Year 2: Aroma and disease assessment and selection, initial

brew trial. Venture propagating for all promising selections.

Year 3: Propagation of plots and further disease screening

Year 4: Larger scale brewing trials, further propagation for

favoured plots

Year 5: Planting on farms

▪ 5000 seedlings

growing in pots in

2017

40% will be male.

The program is only as strong as

the plants that fail!

Disease screening

Looking for natural resistance to Powdery

mildew and tolerance to downy mildew -

reducing our dependence on fungicides.

What else are we looking?Small leaves (more hops)

Bunchy, Firm Cones

Stiff laterals

Good resin, complex aromas

What about the aroma?

Green aroma is used

to identify promising

plants at an early

stage, but not

exclusively.

Dried aroma is

assessed in

November and

January.

We analyse upto 200

dried samples per

year. Green aroma

identifies 2/3rd of the

desirable plants.

Hop Compounds –

Acids

▪ Alpha acids

▪ Humulone

▪ Co – humulone

▪ Ad – humulone

▪ Beta acids

▪ Imparts

bitterness,

flavour and

mouthfeel

Hop Compounds –

Oils and Resins

▪ Farnesene

▪ Myrcene

▪ Humulene

▪ Selinene

▪ Caryophyllene

▪ Linalool

▪ Geraniool

▪ Imparts flavour

and aroma

▪ Every hop has

different levels

of oils and

resins

▪ Very dependant

on growing

conditions,

especially in the

last month

The Future?

▪ More intensely flavoured hops from all

countries

▪ Alpha acreage has been decreasing,

perhaps now critical, although there is

indication of increase in the USA

▪ New varieties being propagated all the

time

▪ “Old” varieties being re-visited

▪ Varieties being selected on aroma

Early Crop Reports from

the 2018 Harvest

The UK▪ There’s a change of varieties to follow the market.

Goldings and Fuggle still important.

▪ More varieties going in (mainly the newer varieties like

Jester, Ernest, Olicana

▪ Late start due to snow in March. Then it was really

wet, thankfully

▪ 4-5% increase in acreage.

▪ Then we had the hot sunny weather. Traditional British

heritage varieties have struggled

▪ It’s hard to tell until after the harvest what the yield will

be but early varieties have suffered most

▪ Goldings are down by about 30%

▪ Phoenix is 20% up on average.

▪ New varieties are looking amazing. 60 will be ready for

Charles Faram aroma testing at the start of next year

USA

▪ Weather has been normal this year. It was a bit wet. It’s

been extremely warm and then cooled down a couple of

weeks ago

▪ Centennial will be below average. Maybe Simcoe and

Idaho 7 as well

▪ Acreage gone up by 2000 acres. Mainly Citra and

proprietary hops

▪ Simcoe acreage reduced

▪ Alpha is becoming more popular. It has been 80%

aroma 20% alpha in the past although more recently

aroma has been higher than alpha

▪ Future will see more alpha going in

▪ Release of new varieties has slowed down. Some great

new varieties in the pipe line

Czech Republic

• Crop yield is low. There’s more than 50% less on

some farms

• All 3 Hop regions are below average. Weather

has been very dry for growers in Europe

• Hop quality is better than expected. Essential oils

this year are pretty good

• Acreage of Saaz and new varieties expected to

increase in acreage next year

• Trial plots with Charles Faram are putting forward

a new variety next year

Slovenia

• 1800 hectares slight increase of around

100 hectares mostly Aurora. Good

substitute for Perle

• Crop very nice as had favourable

weather (a wet “English” summer)

• May was too hot for early varieties, but

quality still good

• Exciting times ahead with Hop

development. More high aroma

Germany

• Acreage increased by about 700ha

• Mainly Herkules (Magnum and Taurus

reduced as they cannot produce enough

alpha per ha to compete)

• Hot dry summer - many varieties hit hard

(particularly the early ones).

• Overall yields could be 20% short of

normal

• Herkules still to be harvested but

expected to be lower alpha and yields.