Surrey brewer Hogs Back Brewery has supplied hop shoots from its garden to pub company Red Mist Leisure to create a Real Ale Salad at the Stag on the River in Guildford.
The salad, created by Red Mist’s group chef Mark Collins combines hop leaves and shoots with watercress, Montgomery cheddar, pickled walnuts and pear quince, in a dressing based on Hogs Back’s flagship TEA ale.
Rupert Thompson, owner of Hogs Back Brewery, said: “Very few brewers have their own hop garden and one of the benefits is that we can experiment with the shoots as well as add the harvested flowers to our beers. As this is all a new venture for us, we’re unsure how many shoots we’ll have but we hope to extend the trial with Red Mist Leisure for as long as we can supply them.”
The hops were picked from the Hogs Back Brewery garden, which was planted in 2014 on land adjacent to the brewery. The shoots used in the salad were from early growing Cascade hops, though shoots are now coming through on Fuggles and Farnham White Bine, a near-extinct hop variety which Hogs Back has brought back to its Surrey home.
A traditional English delicacy in many hop-growing areas, the shoots were sometimes known as ‘poor man’s asparagus.’
Manager at the Stag on the River, Laurie Bullett, said customers were very interested in tasting the salad because of the unusual ingredients and local provenance.
The salad went on sale over the weekend of 17-19 April at the Stag on the River in Eashing near Guildford.
