Australian Hops In The Old Days

[bradsbrew]

Sort of makes you wonder then what he would have copped if it had HSA.

stagga.

:lol: . An extra 50 lashes for missing the mash out temp by 2 degrees.

 

[winkle]

Found it
A brewer called John Boston used fermentable sugars form corn and used cape gooseberry leaves for bittering pre 1804, dont know what it would taste like?
James Squire first sucessfully cultivated hops in Australia in 1804 and was given a cow from the gorvernors heard.
Info out of The complete guide to Beer and Brewing by Laurie Strachan, a fantastic book!!
Cheers

From memory Squire cornered the hop market (by being the only one growing them). So poor old John Boston & partner were forced to use the cape gooseberry leaves and tomato leaves/stems as the bittering addition(s), I think both of them (not Squire) left Oz rather disillusioned and came to a bad end. I'm pretty sure someone on the forum was researching this for a PHD or somethin'.

 

[staggalee]

:lol: . An extra 50 lashes for missing the mash out temp by 2 degrees.

Or worse still...... "`ere yer go then Guvner Phillip, I knocked up this Brigalow Draught with a kg of white sugar for yer, `ope yer enjoys it , Soire" :blink:

stagga.

 

[quantocks]

Lager was not brewed in Australia until 1885. Early beers were also brewed without the benefit of hops as no one had successfully cultivated them in Australia and importation was difficult. James Squire was the first to successfully cultivate hops in 1804. The Government Gazette from 1806 mentions that he was awarded a cow from the government herd for his efforts.

heres a pretty decent site, http://www.australianbeers.com/history/his...istory_main.htm

 

[Bribie G]

1880 ?

That would have been the last boom they had then ?

stagga.

:icon_offtopic:
yup, after that they all hopped into their Winnebagos and settled Hervey Bay The 1880s in Melbourne and also Sydney was the 'boomtime' referred to because the 1890s was a huge depression era ( stories and poems of Henry Lawson encapsulates the moods and troubles of the time perfectly )

In Victorian and NSW architecture, for example, Boom Style is a well recognised term, the next upturn was Federation Style. Brisbane didn't get a real Boom style architecture because it was basically a little country town till the 1880s and then developed rapidly after that.

If you want to see probably the only two remaining examples of boom style housing in Brisbane go to Coronation Drive at Milton overlooking the river, and have a squiz at the magnificent Cook's Terrace, a boom style row of six terraced Victorian mansions, then the better known "Mansions" in George street and ponder on how things could look nowadays if we could have got big before 'the boom'

 

[hoohaaman]

hehe self flagellation for missing by 3 degrees

 

[bradsbrew]

Or worse still...... "`ere yer go then Guvner Phillip, I knocked up this Brigalow Draught with a kg of white sugar for yer, `ope yer enjoys it , Soire" :blink:

stagga.

:lol: :lol: Piss funny!!!!!!!!!

 

[bradsbrew]

:icon_offtopic:
yup, after that they all hopped into their Winnebagos and settled Hervey Bay

:lol: The lines are coming out tonight :lol:

 

[Batz]

100 lashes almost killed him

And I get PO when I have feed the chooks

 

[MHB]

There is a great book on the history of hops in Australia.

The Hop Industry in Australia
Helen R Pearce
First Printed 1976
ISBN 0 522 84097 3.

According to the author (highly paraphrased and condensed)
Early colonial attempts showed very mixed results, the two notable growers being James Squire and Gregory Blaxland. According to whom by 1816 the colonial government was already imposing a tax on locally grown hops.

Some early success in Tasmania and Victoria at growing English varieties; however they were not really economically viable until the end of the great depression.

The industry went through lots of ups and down until the more modern varieties (read POR) came out of indigenous breading programmes in the late 50-60s.

Looks like if you want get close to early styles Fuggle and Golding hops would be the way to go.
Sadly we have over the years lost a lot of the old varieties of Golding, other than East Kent there is really only Brambling reasonably available.
Brewers Gold, First Gold and Northern Brewer are more modern descendants of earlier Golding varieties. As is anything with a related name i.e. Nugget, Bullion, if more distantly. Some of these might serve.

For anyone interested this is a handy link. Mr Goldings descendants

Sounds like an interesting project, be good to hear how the beer comes out.

MHB

 

[Bribie G]

Absolute gold, MHB, will follow up on your suggestions. :icon_cheers:

 

[staggalee]

:icon_offtopic:
yup, after that they all hopped into their Winnebagos and settled Hervey Bay The 1880s in Melbourne and also Sydney was the 'boomtime' referred to because the 1890s was a huge depression era ( stories and poems of Henry Lawson encapsulates the moods and troubles of the time perfectly )

In Victorian and NSW architecture, for example, Boom Style is a well recognised term, the next upturn was Federation Style. Brisbane didn't get a real Boom style architecture because it was basically a little country town till the 1880s and then developed rapidly after that.

If you want to see probably the only two remaining examples of boom style housing in Brisbane go to Coronation Drive at Milton overlooking the river, and have a squiz at the magnificent Cook's Terrace, a boom style row of six terraced Victorian mansions, then the better known "Mansions" in George street and ponder on how things could look nowadays if we could have got big before 'the boom'

View attachment 24175 View attachment 24176

Great pics Bribie
re. Cooks Terrace, it just put me in mind if you had smoke billowing from the six stacks on top, and a big paddlewheel at the back, you could go clear dowm the Mississippi from Natchez to New Orleans

stagga.

 

[T.D.]

Jamil show about Aussie PA mentioned that the style really grew out of the the need to use coarse high alpha hops.

 

[johnno]

Bit of info on the brewiki site.

http://brewiki.org/PrideOfRingwood

johnno

 

[warrenlw63]

Jamil show about Aussie PA mentioned that the style

... really wasn't ummm, hmm, weeeelll you know "biscuity" enough. h34r:

Warren -

 

[TidalPete]

yup, after that they all hopped into their Winnebagos and settled Hervey Bay

The lines are coming out tonight

AND the rest of Good 'Ole Qld
Been watching the tennis & find it hard to believe there are so many left down there? :lol:

TP :beer:

 

[Screwtop]

For hop history info why not try Hopco in Tasmania www.hopco.com.au/contact-us.html

Screwy

 

[Thirsty Boy]

In a book I got somewhere or mayby the back of a James Squire bottle. I read in reference to the brewer that Squires is founded on that at the start of colony days most beer was imported and when the started making it they used some wild plant for bittering untill the brewer imported some plants and started growing the first field. He was awarded some prize by the govoner or something?
Will see If I can find it again

One of the plants that was used (I believe) was a native plant called, unsurprisingly, the Hopbush. It grows fruit which bear a remarkable similarity to the fruit of actual hops and is also supposedly quite a reasonable bittering agent.

There are a bunch of different varieties of hopbush... I don't know if there was a specific one used or if it was just whatever was local.

 

[reviled]

Slightly :icon_offtopic: but relevant to NZ beer history

James Cook brewed the 1st beer in NZ and bittered and flavoured with Rimu and Manuka, and theres a brewery in Chch that replicates this, ive had a bottle sitting in my fridge for 2 months and im afraid to try it :unsure: lol..

Would be keen to know what sort of hops were imported from NZ, most likely just a variety of goldings or fuggles...

 

[staggalee]

The Zythophile link from MHB is great stuff.
Hours of good reading there, thanks.
Makes you wonder how we got on before the `net arrived.

stagga.