Australian Hops In The Old Days

[oldbugman]

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.

We just do what we do now, RHAHB and make it up.

 

[jonocarroll]

Doesn't seem to have been posted yet, so here's this from Wikipedia;

On 5 March 1789, James gave evidence on the theft by 2 fellow convicts of 6 cabbages. The thieves received 50 lashes each^[12]. James was then hauled before the magistrate, charged with stealing 'medicines' from the hospital stores where he worked at Port Jackson. These medicines were, in fact, 1 pound of pepper (or paper) and horehound (a herb that imitates the tangy flavour of hops), belonging to Surgeon John White. Though James claimed the stolen horehound was for his pregnant girlfriend, he later revealed at the Bigge inquiry that he began brewing beer on his arrival to Australia, which he sold for 4d^[13] per quart. Indeed, James was brewing beer for the personal consumption of Lieutenant Francis Grose and William Paterson over that time. Perhaps that explains Squire's lenient sentence when petty theft was often punished with execution. His sentence of 14 November 1789 read:

"one hundred and fifty (lashes of the whip) now, and the remainder when able to bear it".​

(My bold emphasis).

So perhaps he didn't start out with hopped beer?


​

 

[rclemmett]

By the end of the 19th century there was a well established trade route across the Pacific from the USA as a result of the Gold Rushes - that's where chokos and blue cattle dogs came from, for instance - and a trans Pacific hop trade would have been quite feasible.

XXXX uses Cluster hops and, the company having migrated from Castlemaine in Victoria in the 19th century I wonder if they brought their preference for cluster hops (a US variety apparently derived from native hops there) with them from Victoria to Brisbane.

The 1880s were the 'boom' period of Victoria due to the gold rushes and the importation of US hops would make sense given the shipping routes of the time.

Interestinger and interestinger.

Quite feasible, but I think you'll find blue heelers are all Oz. I thought chokos were from Italy or Greece. No offence intended.

 

[Bridges]

Was returning from a family holiday and drove through a place called Mossiface in south eastern Victoria. Nothing much there but a curious building and as it happens it's right near the Bullant Brewery in Bruthen, beers were good without being awesome, but when I got home I googled the odd buildings, (there's nothing else in Mossiface) Turns out they are turn of the century hop kilns. Or oasts. Seems around the turn of the century hops were a significant industry in the area, I thought it very odd that the brewery itself didn't tap into this history given they are only about 5 k's down the road. Haven't been able to find out much about particular varieties grown but interesting none the less.

 

[lukiferj]

Awesome!

 

[Bridges]

Yeah now I'm thinking I'll have to make an effort to get back and have a better look around...

 

[DU99]

Otway Estate Wild Hop Organic Ale
One of the more unusual of this year’s crop of hop harvest beers, this saw the Otway Estate brewers track down a field of wild hops on the edge of the Otway Ranges that had once been used to supply the long-defunct Ballarat Brewery. Having filled their truck with Canterbury Goldings

wonder how long they had been grown in that area

 

[Toper]

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

Wrong about Lager.First brewed on a comercial scale by Cohn Brothers of Bendigo in 1882.a very common misconception though

 

[kalbarluke]

Slightly off topic but hops was being produced in commercial quantities in Victoria in the 1870's, usually with the help of slave/cheap labour from displaced and half caste aborigines. Coranderrk mission was near Healesville and was a major hop farm basically run by aborigines who had been forced off their traditional land. There is some info, photos and paintings about it on the net. Don't know what kind of hops though.

 

[Greg.L]

Before ww2 most major towns in Australia had their own brewery, I guess transport costs before trucks made local production more economical. I think the hops were probably grown locally in Vic and Tas, supplying the large number of small local inland breweries would have been a good market for hop growers. It wasn't until the postwar period that population and industry were concentrated in the big cities. I really don't think we would have imported all our hops when beer was such a popular drink and Australia's economy was much more agriculture based.

 

[Jaded and Bitter]

Interesting thread.

If you visit the Lobethal Brewhaus in the Adelaide Hills theres some great photos of old hopfarms and ousthouses in the 'hills.

Given the hills were largely colonised by German settlers early on*, old German hop varieties are possible candidates also.

*All this was going on when Adelaide was a free city.