recipe for sunday. user up porter. any problems?

[orlando]

I know little about it other than it was an experimental hop and that it will probably not be continued with, which I think is a shame for the reasons I gave. I did a search on Flyer and came up with very little. I did notice the thread that you contributed to on here, which I hadn't seen before, and was gratified to see had some convergence with my own thoughts. The pity for me is that there is not a lot to choose from for a good English bittering hop.

[seymour]

...The pity for me is that there is not a lot to choose from for a good English bittering hop.

Yeah, it is a pity, especially considering your countrymen have been tossing away good ones for generations: Brewer's Gold, Bullion, Progress, Pride of Ringwood, Saxon, Viking, Yeoman, Zenith, etc. Perhaps some of these will be revived from the germplasm repositories now that trends have changed.

On the other hand, I realize they aren't super-alpha, but I still think Northern Brewer, Northdown, Challenger, and a few others, are suitably high-alpha with excellent bittering characteristics. Besides, there's nothing to stop you from using a super-alpha but otherwise relatively neutral bittering hop like Magnum, then characteristic English hops for flavour and aroma stages.

Take hope, though, it sounds hopeful this situation is changing. I believe the mentality has changed, the breeders and growers understand the new demand, it just takes a long time to get new breeds to market. I'm still not convinced growers have stopped growing Flyer, there is too much contradictory information. But even if it's true, you oughta be encouraged that it's because 10.9% alpha acids isn't high enough for growers to commit to! That's not your grand-daddy's English hop farmer talking.

[zgoda]

Growers want the thing that sells - alpha acids. Most of hops is processed into extract where only aa counts. That's why nobody grows Brewer's Gold in Poland, and equally why new domestic varieties don't take off, even if they have excellent flavour or aroma, like Lomik. Craft brewers use only small fraction of what is ordered yearly by big guys, Heineken, Carlsberg or SABMiller. And they want a-acids only.

In Poland many small brewers have their own hop farms and grow varieties they need, like Sybilla.

[orlando]

I believe that the market is starting to take more notice of aroma, and the oil and resin content of hops that delivers it, as at least as important as high alpha. The more science begins to wring out of hop "architecture" the more breeders will look for how you can combine the two.