Is scrumping hops acceptable

[jof]

Ethical question:
I cycle past a hop garden occaionally.
Would scrumping a few flowers be considered bad form or using initiative?

Or am I regressing back to a misspent childhood before everyone had computer games.

 

[phildo79]

Back in the day, you'd have been thrown onto a ship bound for Australia for that sort of behaviour.

 

[jMac]

I might be wearing my Puritan hat here :tinhat:, but, going on my own home hop growing experience, the amount of hops you’d need to scrump for even a small batch I would consider excessive and a definite no-no. Dried hops weigh only a fifth of wet hop weight - so you’d probably need to pick a carrier bag full to have anything useful.

However, if you just want to make a tea to see what they taste like... maybe find out who runs the hop garden and ask for a handful?

I envy you living near a hop garden though. I grew up in Kent and remember all the hops growing in the fields stretching from village to village when I was a kid. All gone now .

jx

 

[marshbrewer]

If echo what has been said above. Hedgerow hops is one thing, but stealing from someone's garden is out of order.

Just ask.

 

[terrym]

No, on the assumption you are over 10 years of age and have been taught right from wrong.

 

[MyQul]

When you say 'hop garden' you dont mean Charles Faram by any chance

 

[Clint]

If they're hanging over the fence...nick the lot...

 

[jof]

Alas, they don't even over hang the footpath.
Hoddy might know where it is, as its not far from him :)

I too grew up in east kent, but even then there were very few fields dedicated to hops. The only one I remember being in Shatterling - just outside Wingham on the Sandwich-Canterbury road.

It might also be why I always use East Kent Goldings as one of the hops in every brew I make.

 

[phildo79]

I know someone that used to scrump flag stones from a small hardware stores yard that was on their dog walking route. So perhaps a handful of hops isn't so bad.

 

[Mavroz]

Depends on how you look at it...
Theft is theft

 

[jMac]

I too grew up in east kent, but even then there were very few fields dedicated to hops. The only one I remember being in Shatterling - just outside Wingham on the Sandwich-Canterbury road.

It might also be why I always use East Kent Goldings as one of the hops in every brew I make.

This would have been late 70s/early 80s. But I’m from the Weald (Cranbrook) not east Kent proper, so it could be our hop farms lasted until later. When I was very young, I remember many of the hop fields still having the derelict pickers huts in them.

I do like to use EKGs in my beers still though. And I’ve even got some growing in my garden. Although as I’m in Bedfordshire now, I guess they’re Mid Beds Goldings...i guess there must still be hop farms in east Kent, otherwise we’d have no EKGs!

jx