Hops

“ On debouching from the road over which the tall poles with the slender stems of the hops twining and clambering, though leafless and faded, formed an archway through the thick and dense hop gardens that bordered each side of the way, the advanced guard uttered a shout of surprise and defiance, and halted till the main body came up. ”

“ Every settler grows, as an ornament in his garden, or should grow, hops, which form one of the principal components of maple-beer when added to the sap.
HOP-RISING. This excellent, and, I might add, indispensable, article in every settler's house, is a valuable substitute for ale or beer-yeast, and is made in the following simple manner:—Take two double handfuls of hops, boil in a gallon of soft water, if you can get it, till the hops sink to the bottom of the vessel; make ready a batter formed by stirring a dessert-platefull of flour and cold water till smooth and pretty thick together ”

“ We sat on the edge of the bin, between the standing hops, while a pole-puller supplied us with great fragrant branches. In an hour’s time we became as expert as it is possible to become. As soon as the fingers became accustomed automatically to differentiate between hops and leaves and to strip half-a-dozen blossoms at a time there was no more to learn. ”

“ Where does hops originate, where does hops grow? It originates in a damp spot, in a willow copse, its seed is a white pearl. The wind blew, puffed it. Whither, whither did it puff it? To the bank of a river, into a cook-house it puffed it, in the cook-house they are brewing ale. ”

“ Brown spots are frequently to be seen on hops; these are, in general, hops that came to a full ripeness before they were gathered. High winds and rain frequently happen about the middle or latter end of the hop season, which will disfigure them in their colour in a few hours, so that the colour is not at all times to direct you as to their goodness. ”

“ I had seen something of hops as a pupil on a large farm near Alton, Hampshire, where they occupied an area of over a hundred acres, but at that time I had no intention of growing them myself, and had not been infected with the glamour, formerly attaching to hops beyond any other crop, that came to me later. ”

“ The principal use of hops, in brewing, is for the preservation of malt liquor, and to communicate to it an agreeably aromatic bitter flavour. The best hops are used for ale and the finer kinds of malt liquor, and inferior kinds are used for porter. The odour of hops hung over a bed, or a pillow stuffed with hops, has been said to promote sleep, after the application of opium has failed. The young shoots and tops are often gathered from the hedges, by poor people, and boiled and eaten in the manner of asparagus. ”

“ Mid Kent and Sussex hops are also used for ale, but have an inferior colour and flavour. The best hops are packed in sacks of fine canvas, termed ‘pockets,’ weighing from 11⁄4 cwt. to 13⁄4 cwt. each; and the inferior qualities in coarse ‘bags,’ of about double the size. The former are mostly purchased by the ale brewers, and the latter by the porter brewers. When hops are older than of last season’s growth they are termed ‘yearlings,’—when of the second season’s growth, ‘old,’—and when three years, or older, ‘old olds.’ See Brewing, Extract, Humulin, Lupulin, Tincture, &c. ”

“ The best hops have a golden yellow colour, large cones, an agreeable aroma; when rubbed between the hands, they leave yellow traces, powerfully odoriferous, without any broken portions of the plant, such as leaves, stems, and scaly fragments. When alcohol is digested on good hops, from 9 to 12 per cent. of soluble yellow matter may be obtained by evaporating it to dryness. ”

“ Hops are the grand flavour of conversation as well as of beer. Gentlemen, ladies, clergymen, noblemen, all are growers of hops, and deeply interested in the state of the crop and the market.” {89}
The use of wires is a serious matter for hop-pole growers if the following calculation, made by some ingenious person, be correct. Suppose that 45,000 acres of hops are under cultivation, and each acre annually requires 800 new poles, the total annual requirement will be 36,000,000 poles. Each acre of underwood from which poles are cut produces about 3,000. ”

“ The results of modern investigation tend to show that it is very largely to the presence and proportion of the latter that hops owe their preserving value, though the quality of hops is by no means wholly dependent on this one feature. ”

“ With regard to hops, the quality is very various. At times when some sell for 5s. a pound, others sell for sixpence. Provided the purchaser understand the article, the quality is, of course, in proportion to the price. There are two things to be considered in hops: the power of preserving beer, and that of giving it a pleasant flavour. Hops may be strong; and yet not good. They should be bright, have no leaves or bits of branches amongst them. The hop is the husk, or seed-pod, of the hop-vine, as the cone is that of the fir-tree ”

“ HOPS are the dried flower-buds of a climbing British plant (Humulus lupulus, Fig. 81) , with a rough and angular stem, and leaves generally in three or five lobes or divisions, and serrated. Although hops grow wild, in great abundance, on hedges in several parts of the south of England, there is reason to suppose that their use was first made known from the Continent in the reign of Henry the Eighth.
A hop plantation requires the growth of some years before it is in perfection. The plants begin to push up their young stems about the month of April. ”

“ HE hops used in beer-brewing are the female flowers of the hop plant known to botanists as the Humulus lupulus of Linnæus. At first sight it may seem strange that hops and wolves should have anything in common, but it has been explained that the word lupulus comes from the name by which the Romans called the hop plant—Lupus Salictarius—the idea being that the hop was as destructive among the willows (where it grew) as a wolf among sheep. ”

“ Experience has proved, that hops slack-dried, or kept in a damp place, are pernicious ingredients for making beer; and likewise, that they yield their aromatic bitter more efficaciously, when boiled in wort than in water: hence, to impregnate the extracts from malt with a due proportion of hops, their strength, as well as that of the extract, should previously be ascertained. ”

“ The hops are from nine to ten hours drying, after which they are taken off the kiln and allowed to cool somewhat, and are then packed tightly into “pockets” 6 ft. long and 2 ft. wide, weighing 11/2 cwt., by means of a hop-pressing machine, which has cogs and wheels worked by hand. Of late years more care has been bestowed by some of the leading growers upon the drying of hops, so as to preserve their qualities and volatile essences, and to meet the altered requirements of brewers, who must have bright, well-managed hops for the production of light clear beers for quick draught. ”

“ Hops should be of a bright colour, free from green leaves, of a quick pungent smell, and glutinous quality, which will be discoverable by their adhering together, and by rubbing them in the hands. New hops are preferable to old, after Christmas.
To Brew Ale with Table Beer after, from the same malt and hops.—The malt should be pale, sweet, and tender, ground coarse, and the hops of a pale bright colour and glutinous quality. ”

“ Of the different kinds of hops, the long white is the most esteemed; it yields the greatest quantity, and is the most beautiful. The beauty of hops consists of their being of a pale bright green color. Care should be taken to obtain all of one sort ”

“ Chronicle, published in 1521, reminds that by this time hops were in use, ‘ten quarters of malt, 2 of wheat, 2 of oats, with 11lbs. of hops for making 11 barrels of single beer.’ This is the first I can find with hops as an ingredient. ”

“ Here are several hop-plantations in and about this village; but for this once the prayers of the over-production men will be granted, and the devil of any hops there will be. The bines are scarcely got up the poles; the bines and the leaves are black, nearly, as soot; full as black as a sooty bag or dingy coal-sack, and covered with lice. It is a pity that these hop-planters could not have a parcel of Spaniards and Portuguese to louse their hops for them. Pretty devils to have liberty, when a favourite recreation of the Donna is to crack the lice in the head of the Don! ”

“ Hops are sufficiently dried, when their inner stalks break short, and their leaves become crisp, and fall off easily. They will crackle a little when their seed is bursting, and then they should be removed from the kiln. Hops that are dried in the sun lose their rich flavour, and, if under cover, they are apt to ferment and change with the weather, and lose their strength; moderate fire preserves the colour and flavour of the hops, by evaporating the water, and retaining the oil of the hop. ”

“ As the vine was set up as a sign in honour of wine, so the Hop-pole, or the Hop and Barleycorn, the Barley Mow, the Barley Stack, the Malt and Hops, and the Hopbine, are very general tributes of honour rendered to beer. In many ale-houses a bunch of hops may be seen suspended in some conspicuous place. ”

“ In the hop countries most hop-planters keep those hops which are most disfigured in their quality, separate and apart, when picking, from those of a brighter colour; those which are of an inferior colour are kept for their own use, and disposed of to their neighbours, it being their opinion that they answer the purpose in brewing nearly as well as those of a brighter colour, provided they are in full condition, that is, if they are full of seeds ”

“ This part of our route lay through the country of hops, which plant perhaps supplies the want of the vine in American scenery, and may remind the traveller of Italy, and the South of France, whether he traverses the country when the hop-fields, as then, present solid and regular masses of verdure, hanging in graceful festoons from pole to pole; the cool coverts where lurk the gales which refresh the wayfarer; or in September, when the women and children, and the neighbors from far and near, are gathered to pick the hops into long troughs ”

“ After the hops have been in this situation seven, eight, or nine hours, and have got through sweating, and when struck with a stick will leap up; then throw them into a heap, mix them well, and spread them again, and let them remain till they are all equally dry. While they are in a sweat, it will be best not to move them for fear of burning, slacken the fire, when the hops are to be turned, and increase it afterwards. ”

“ None of us knew anything about the hop business, and it was totally accidental that we engaged in it, but seeing that there were possibilities of great gain, I took extra pains to study up the question, and found that by allowing our hops to mature thoroughly and curing them at a low temperature, and baling them while hot, we could produce a hop that would compete with any product in the world. ”

“ The manifold vertues of hops do manifest argue the wholesomnesse of beere, for the hops rather make it a physicall drinke to keep the body in health, than an ordinary drinke for the quenching of our thirst.” The leaves of the hop are sometimes heart-shaped, at others divided into three very distinctly marked lobes, in either case the margins being deeply serrate. The order to which the hop belongs includes many plants useful to man, as, for instance, among several others, the hemp, mulberry, fig, the Urostigma elasticum, yielding india-rubber, and the bread-fruit tree. ”

“ Fair weather should always be chosen to gather hops and they should never be gathered when dew or moisture is on them, as it subjects them to mould. They should be dried as soon as possible after they are gathered; if not immediately, they must be spread on a floor to prevent their changing colour. The best mode of drying them is with a fire of charcoal and kiln, covered with hair cloth in the manner of a malt-kiln. [7] The fire should be steady and equal, and the hops gently stirred from time to time. ”

“ It is made thus: two pounds of hops are boiled in two gallons of water for half an hour, then strained and pressed, and the fluid added to about thirty gallons of water. This bath has been much praised. Hop beer (without alcohol) is another preparation of the plant which has been recommended.
In America the hop is highly appreciated for medicinal purposes. There are three preparations of it in the authorized code: a tincture, a liquid extract, and an oleo-resin. ”

“ All these, when obtained genuine, are excellent, and I believe wholesome, but they should be used very sparingly indeed when wine is taken. Dr. Paris tells us that the most useful quality in the beer comes from the hop. “Independently,” says he, “of the flavour and tonic virtues which hops [264] communicate, they precipitate by means of their astringent principle the vegetable mucilage, and thus remove from the beer the active principle of fermentation; without hops, therefore, we must either drink our malt liquors new and ropy, or old and sour.” ”

“ Our English hops, indeed, are far superior to most of those imported, and the foreigners are rarely used in beer without an admixture of home-grown hops. Immense quantities now come from abroad; in 1828 only 4 cwt. were imported!
Until quite recently, the whole of the hops in this country were poled upon much the same system as that described in Reynolde Scot’s old pamphlet—that is, three or four plants would be grown on a hillock, each having a pole to climb. ”

“ Angel and Silverton, constituting the great hop growing localities, with Salem, the center and distributing point. Through this stretch of country are seen everywhere the buildings for the drying of hops, and during the autumn months there is a scene of continual activity for the growers, pickers, pressers and buyers, getting the hops ready for shipment to eastern markets, principally to be used by the large breweries. ”