The fourth annual Community Green Hop brew day has taken place at Bluestone Brewing Company, in Newport, Pembrokeshire.
A few years ago now, the brewery bought some hop plants and gave them out to its neighbours. The neighbours were asked to grow the hops and then, once they were ready to harvest, the community would be invited to come together for a community brew day and barbecue.
Emily Hutchinson, marketing director, said: “It’s always a day to look forward to and a great chance for our community to come together. This year was a little different as we were unable to have our usual barbecue, but we still managed to have a socially-distant get together and enjoyed harvesting the hops in the September sunshine.
“Our wonderful friends and neighbours arrived all throughout the morning with the hops that they have been growing for the past year. We spent the day picking them and then Tom, our head brewer, added them to the brew in the afternoon. We’ll have a delicious, one-off, home-grown, single-green-hop beer available for everybody to enjoy soon.”
Everyone who has grown hops and helped to harvest them will receive their own box of the finished product. The bottled beer is available to order on the brewery website and a few casks will go out to local pubs.
The brewery has decided that this year, all profits from the green hop brew will be donated to The Watershed Foundation to support those affected by the recent fires at Moria Camp, in Lesvos.
Simon Turner, Bluestone’s owner and director, said: “My brother, Jonny, has been leading a team at Moria camp on behalf of Watershed Foundation for a few years now. The Watershed team are completely dazed by the recent fires, having spent so much time improving sanitation around the camp, and now wondering where it all goes from here.
“The serious nature of this disaster seems to have been completely masked by current covid-related news stories. They need urgent support and funds in order to put basic sanitation back together for the 12,600 residents who are currently living in the open.
“This beer is all about bringing our local community together and we see this as an opportunity to help another community who urgently need our support.”
