Dear Green Pale
August 2025
Calling all local hop growers! I need your help.
We are nearing the special time of year where hops are to be harvested. This will be the fourth year running I spend a good part of a day picking Cascade hops grown by my friend Gary on his Queens’ Park allotment, right here in the Southside of Glasgow. Green fingered Gary grows all sorts and is a very nice man. To most people’s surprise he has successfully established two Cascade hops plants with the bines flourishing bright green every year for about a decade now. Sure, the height of the plot, the fertile soil, Gary’s finely tuned skills and the fact that the allotment area is protected from strong winds by high trees all round, promote such healthy hop-growing standards. But I’ve heard mumblings of many other hop growing success stories in and around Glasgow. And I not only want to hear more about them- I want to work with them.
It was midsummer 2022 when I received a Whatsapp message from a stranger named Gary offering up his hop harvest. This must be a hoax, I thought. Even the bines abundantly glowing green with wet cones pictured in his next few messages didn’t fully convince me. Hops! Cascade hops! Growing right here in Glasgow, around the corner from where we stay — yeah sure, pull the other one. I knew hops were up here but I was doubtful over how big they could grow, let alone produce enough lupulin to make them worthy of a green hop ale.
Gary’s triumphantly resplendent 2022 crop.
I was soon proven very wrong. There was more than enough for a 400L batch. Not only were the cones big but they had already, by mid-August produced resin and wafted up that distinct lemony smell you get from Cascade. Excitement took over. I was already dreaming up names and marketing ideas: a Glasgow green hop harvest ale must be made! And made it was. For three years running, ‘Cone Zone’ has gone through three iterations: a Double IPA, a straight Green Hop Pale and last year a lovely delicate mild ale was produced. With the huge help of my partner and friends over 6kg were harvested each year. Thank you Fran, Gary, Thomas, Matt and Mike for all the help. (The latter friend listed there: Mike -the beer name wizard that he is- came up with the name as he so often has done with ease for many Dookit brews over the years).
Soon after the first harvest in 2022 my mind sprung to several ideas of developing the project. Surely there are other successful hop growers in and around Glasgow and surely that should be celebrated! As is often the case with running a brewery things popped up and got in the way. Christmas came around, part time jobs and other priorities in the business took hold and the ever-growing back burner club of jobs and ideas welcomed a new member. This year I hope to change that and promote the idea back to fruition. All puns and fun intended! The Summer has been decent, with it looking to get hotter again next week; this is definitely a good year for such an ambitious project.
A close up of the Queens Park crop from September 2023
That’s where I need your help to spread the word and share the fact that Dookit Brewing wants your hops! Anyone growing hops in or around Glasgow are welcome to get involved in this project I’m calling ‘Dear Green Pale’. Towards the end of September Dookit Brewing will welcome nearby hop growers to the brewery for a collaborative Green Hop brew. They’ll get to bring along their harvest to add into the brew kettle and experience the brew day from start to finish if they so wish. They’ll of course get a fair amount of beer they have helped to brew at the end of the project.
Please get in touch by email for more information and to get involved: hello@dookitbrewing.co.uk