GAVIN AITCHISON meets the Yorkshireman working his magic on beers across the country

IT is only a small room, no more than about 20ft by 10ft, with a brash fluorescent light and no decoration. To the naked eye, it could scarcely be less exciting. But to the naked nose, it is a brewer’s paradise.

This is the sample room at Charles Faram, one of Britain’s biggest hop merchants and supplier to hundreds of breweries nationwide. Two adjoining warehouses are full of vacuum-packed bags ready for delivery, but the sample room is where the magic happens. Here, under the watchful eye of Andrew Whalley, masterpieces are inspired.

To the layman, hops are hops; nothing more, nothing less. But to the aficionado, they are the magical ingredient in any beer. As a curry maestro selects his spices or an Italian chef his herbs, so a brewer selects his hops, meticulously seeking the perfect combination that will make the perfect pint.

That’s where Andrew comes in. He joined the firm three months ago, having worked at York Brewery for 16 years, and commutes from Ryedale to Worcestershire each week to respond to the soaring demand from brewers up and down the land.

Andrew’s role is a new one, but his official title of “technical sales director” doesn’t do it justice. “Hop guru” would be more apt. He is a trouble-shooter, adviser and sorcerer all rolled into one, and the sample room is his laboratory.

A deep shelf along one wall is lined with clear polythene bags, each containing cones of a different hop variety. Many look virtually indistinguishable but Andrew knows each one inside out and rifles through them with glee.

“That one smells like grapefruit,” he says, passing one bag round. “This one is more lemony,” he says, sniffing another.

“Give it a try,” he says, and we all rub the cones between our palms, releasing the fresh, pungent oils.

In all, there are 93 varieties of hop here, each with its own aroma, flavour and character, and Andrew is confident he could identify most in blind beer tests.

“If people are blending hops, it’s hard,” he says. “But if it’s a single-hop beer, then certain ones stand out, like Citra or Chinook.”

Those names will be familiar to a lot of real ale fans, breweries often naming ales after those hops. York Brewery produced a beer called Citra last year, for example; so too have Mallinsons and Oakham, among others.

Only the most learned drinker could come close to naming 93 varieties though. Andrew tours the world looking for the best crops, and the shelf here is laden with exotic samples from Slovenia, the Czech Republic, the USA and New Zealand, to name a few.

Fuggles and Galena sound like they belong in a Harry Potter novel; Bobek and Bullion in a boxing ring, perhaps. Polaris and Crusader sound like spaceships. But all are hops. Bishop, Summit, Amarillo, Phoenix, the list goes on and on.

Perhaps the most exciting, however, are those that are unnamed. One of the most fascinating is known simply as 1139, and it hasn’t yet been near a British brewery.

Andrew carefully opens a small, round tub and a wonderful aroma fills the air, but 60 years ago this variety was unanimously rejected by British brewers for being too citrusy, and too American. British drinkers won’t like it, they declared, and it was consigned to history. Or it would have been, had it not been kept alive at the National Hop Centre.

Today, it seems perfect for modern drinking tastes. Andrew expects it to be named within a few months, and it could be used in a beer before the year is out.

A few miles away, in the shadows of the Malvern Hills, the English hops are going strong. Charles Faram is hosting a harvest ‘hop-walk’ next month, inviting brewers to tour local vineyards and see the sample room’s “pick n mix” for themselves.

It’s all a far cry from Toft Green, where Andrew was running York Brewery until early this year, but he’s clearly in his element.

“After 16 years, things get a bit old and I fancied trying something different,” he says. “I have been buying hops with these guys for ten years and had various chats with Paul Corby, the MD, and he knows his stuff.

“It’s a very diverse and interesting job and it’s nice helping brewers. We get the best hops in and source the hops we can and we advise people. Each hop will give a different flavour – and making different flavours is the key thing.”

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