Top of the hops

Brewery transforms Clive’s home-grown hobby into a bitter fit for a festival

AN MP and former Minister of the Environment has praised a Lees man who has turned his hobby in to a sparkling success by producing a remarkable crop of locally-grown hops for a popular beer festival.

Despite the wet summer, Clive Taylor — a member of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) — has grown his own crop of aromatic-flavoured hops which are being turned into foaming pints at an award-winning micro brewery.

Clive (47), a railway stores clerk, began his passion for growing hops some years ago to use for his own home-made beer.

But this year, despite horrendous weather, he produced a bumper crop in his garden and offered them to the Greenfield Brewery which is using them to flavour one of its entries in the Shovels Beer Festival in Blackpool next month. Phil Woolas, MP for Oldham East and Saddleworth, said: “I’ve learned a lot about melting ice caps, typhoons and floods. But hops in Lees — I’m going to speak to the Government’s chief scientist!”

Said Clive:“I have always loved good beer and I started growing the hops really as just a whim. I used them in my home-brew ales.

“Originally I purchased some hops from Kent but, to be honest, I never thought they would ever grow strong enough in be used in a major beer competition.

“It’s very unusual for hops to grow in this part of the world — they are normally associated with Hereford, Worcestershire and Kent, where the climate is a lot warmer.

“I surprised myself and got a huge crop. They really are top class and I hope they help the brewery win a prize.”

He approached the owners of the Greenfield Brewery, Peter Percival and Tony Harratt, who are using them in a specially named bitter — Gardener’s Hop — created for the festival.

“I am absolutely chuffed to bits that the boys agreed to use them in an actual beer alongside their other famous ales,” added Clive who first met the brewery duo when they dedicated a special brew for his wedding reception five years ago.

Greenfield Brewery’s head brewer, Pete Percival, said: “Clive’s hops are really good. We have never used fresh hops in our brews before — they have always been dried varieties.

“But my business partner and I were so impressed with the quality and flavour of Clive’s, we decided to give them a go.”

The hops have produced more than 1,000 pints of bitter, with an alcohol by volume of 4.2 per cent to give a pleasing aromatic flavour.