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Green hop beer keeps it local

Autumn is green hop season when brewers rush to use them fresh off the bine in special one-off seasonal ales. It’s long been a tradition in hop growing areas, like Kent, but Buckinghamshire's Chiltern brewery has recently released Green Hop Ale, which offers a unique take on the style, with the hops clocking up zero food miles. Not only were the hops harvested in the brewery garden, yards from the copper where they were added to the beer, but they’re self-sown. George Jenkinson of Chiltern said: “They looked so good, it seemed a waste not to use them. We suspect they must have seeded from the whole cone hops we've used in the brewery over the years, so we don't know what the exact variety is.”