This week GAVIN AITCHISON  reports on a home brewing innovation

GIVE it a few months, and this simple field may just revolutionise Yorkshire’s beer scene. That may be hard to believe now, when there’s little to see except row upon row of fence-posts and a few fledgling plants.

But it’s true. These early shoots are the beginning of a crop that could transform half a million pints of beer – and give Yorkshire drinkers an entirely local flavour for the first time.

Yorkshire has long prided itself on its ales, but while production has always been in God’s own county and the malt has often been locally-sourced, the hops have had to be imported. But now Matthew Hall and Chris Bradley, the directors of Yorkshire Hops Ltd, hope to change that – and in a little field in East Yorkshire, they are well on their way to doing so.

Matthew, a waiter in Hull, came up with the business plan and teamed up with Chris, a family-friend and farmer who was keen to diversify from cereal and energy crops.

And today, on two and a half acres at Whinneymoor Farm in Ellerker, near South Cave, they are the proud owners of the newest and most northerly commercial hop plantation in the country.

“I started thinking about it a couple of years ago,” says Matthew.

“I’m into home-brewing and had a hop plant in my garden. I tried growing a dozen plants on some land at Elloughton. Then last year, Big River Brewery in Brough tried brewing a beer with some of the hops, and it went quite well. That sparked it off.

“With that first beer, it was an absolutely brilliant feeling. To be at the bar and hear people ordering a beer I had grown the hops for was fantastic.”

A few months later, the operation was in full swing. Matthew and Chris bought harvesting and grading machines from Worcester and Munich, and in February they were joined by supporters from local breweries as they set up telegraph poles, hung wires between them and planted 3,600 plants, the first of which are now two feet tall.

They are growing four varieties – First Gold, Sovereign, New Pioneer and Boadicea – and they hope to harvest in September.

Local breweries including Big River, Brass Castle in Pocklington, Brown Cow near Selby and Saltaire near Bradford have all sponsored rows of hops, in return for first shout when they are ready – and there has even been interest from as far as Cambridgeshire.

Phil Saltonstall from Brass Castle hopes to brew a beer with the hops later this year, and says he is looking forward to sampling the new flavours and enjoying entirely-local beers. On top of that, he says developing a link with a local grower will help Yorkshire brewers to develop.

“The main thing that has inspired us to go ahead is that the brewers have been so interested,” says Chris, who has been farming here for 41 years.

“They really like the idea of all the micro-breweries in Yorkshire using Yorkshire hops. The hops are the only ingredient they could not source locally until now. We should be able to get half a million pints out of one hectare and we are going to put another in this autumn.”

Hop-picking was historically very labour-intensive and grew strongest in the south-east and south-west, where there was a ready labour supply. But Matthew says there is no reason hops cannot succeed in the north too, albeit with a slightly shorter season. And he is confident the demand will grow, meaning 100 per cent Yorkshire ale could be the next big thing in the county’s pubs.

“Almost every other week, there are new breweries opening and new pubs doing real ale,” he says. “So the demand will be there for a long time.”

Follow Gav on twitter @pintsofview