Hoppiness activities are seasonal, six sessions reflecting and intertwining with the changing weather and the growing season of the hop.
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This session provides opportunity for beer-related memories and sets the scene for the growing season ahead. Interacting with objects and photos, singing songs and tasting some beer, participants chat companionably over their own experiences of growing and drinking and are drawn in as partners in the project of nurturing their own hop plants.
We welcome the start of spring and times of growth ahead: an opportunity to open up the garden doors if the weather is kind. Participants plant out their own hop plant, nurture baby rhizomes of their own and use hops from last year’s harvest to make lavender and hop bags.
Participants care for and support their own maturing plants, putting together a watering, feeding or weeding rota, and sitting and working together outside if possible. The plants need support because they could grow up to 6 metres high by August. As always, the sessions end with song, and perhaps a tipple of local ale.
This month the participants visit a local brewery. There’s nothing like the real thing: the sights, smells and sounds of the brewery are unique and, in this session, participants are immersed in a purpose-built sensory experience led by local craft brewers. The textures of the ingredients and a chance to sample the finished product all help convey the journey of the hop to beer.
The season is almost at an end, but not until participants collect the fruits of their nurturing and care. This session sees participants cut down the bines, pick the hops and send them off to the beer-makers for a brew. All of this accompanied by a singsong and maybe a taste of last year’s beer.
It’s singing and celebrations all round. Participants come together with staff, family and other residents to taste the brew, reminisce on the process and look back at their work over the season. Roll out the Barrel!
