The team at Charles Faram have been with us every step of the way on our hoppy journey. Will and Andrew's advice in the early days were instrumental in our development, and the support from Beth, Charlie, Sam and everyone else over the years is just great!
With farmers growing here in the UK in Gloucestershire and Kent, the annual Hop Walk is the first thing on our calendar for September. Their access to and relationships with the best hop farmers around the globe mean we can rely on continued supply of top quality hops, from Yakima Valley in the US, Nelson in New Zealand. or from acrsoss Europe.
Back in 2013 we worked with the UK Hop Development board in conjunction with Charles Faram to trial developmental hop varieties. Following our successful trials, hop variety #1391, which resulted in beautiful grapefruit notes, reminiscent of some of the classic US hops, and a profile not usually associated with UK-grown hops, the hop was approved for commercial production! UK farmer Mark Andrews of Townend Farms dilligently planted and cared for the new plants, and we, Ilkley Brewery, got to name the new hop! We settled on "Olicana" - the Roman name for Ilkley! And now Olicana hops are brewed with all over the world!
Check out the Charles Faram YouTube page for regular Views In The Brew videos: watch now