green hops

The Gin is (Nearly) Dead: Long Live the Gin!

The Gin is (Nearly) Dead: Long Live the Gin!

Some readers may be distraught to hear that our Limited Edition Hopped Gin has nearly sold out. If you love it get your last orders in quick before we completely run out of stock! But, never fear – this week was a very exciting one for Beerblefish because our second batch of hopped gin was distilled!

Our Second Edition Hopped Gin will be coming very soon – it needs bottling and labelling, and then it will be ready for release into the wild. We’ve kept the base recipe the same as for our first edition, but we’ve used different hops.

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Do you remember when we found the hops growing up the gates of the industrial estate where the brewery is back in September? We had planned to put them in a green hop beer, but we never quite got around to it so we changed tack and decided to put them in the new gin instead. They’ve been safely stored since we picked them, so they were ready and waiting for their mission.

Beerblefish's James picking hops at the brewery

There were two plants growing – one of them had the spicy, minty aroma of a Fuggles variety and the other smelled more like a hop from the Goldings family. We think that this combination gives the new gin a slightly different character from the first edition.

We’ve also listened to customer feedback on our first edition and we’re going into three sizes of bottle this time. So you’ll be able to get the second edition in our standard 70cl bottles, as well as a smaller 50cl option and a dinky 20cl size – the perfect stocking filler.

As soon as we’re able, we’ll be putting all three sizes up on the online shop, so keep an eye on our social media for news. And get in quick if you fancy comparing our two editions – there should be a small overlap before the first edition runs out!

Posted by Bethany in Gin
Hopping Mad!

Hopping Mad!

It’s harvest time for hops! We’ve known that the Lea Valley is a rich hopping ground for a long time and we’ve wanted to make a green hop beer with local hops for just as long – after all, our Limited Edition Hopped Gin is flavoured with self-seeded hops from Walthamstow, just the other side of the river from the Beerblefish Brewhouse.

However, we weren’t expecting the lovely surprise we got this week when we discovered that the wild (or at least self-seeded) hop plants growing up the gates to the industrial estate where we’re based had borne fruit, and was laden with beautiful cones ripe for the picking.

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We had previously agreed with the landlord and the neighbouring industrial estate that we could pick and use any hops that grew – we’ve seen several hop plants in the neighbourhood over the four and a half years that we’ve been here, but none of them have ever produced cones before.

As with our gin hops, we have no definitive idea what variety these are – there are two plants and, from the hint of mint, we think one of them might be a Fuggles variety. The other has a slight lemony aroma, but that doesn’t narrow it down massively given the myriad citrusy hop varieties.

The hop plants are less than 50 metres from the brewery door, so we picked them and then ran them straight into the freezer to preserve all their hoppy goodness, ready for Michaela to brew them into a green hop beer. Keep an eye out for our green hop brew over the coming weeks!

Posted by Bethany in Beer Styles and Recipes, Beerblefish HQ News, Brewing