For those who want to understand hops, their smells, commercial beer that use them, etc., you should read this website: http://therulingglass.blogspot.ca/p/a-drinkers-guide-to-hops-archive.html dude has a great sense of humour and does (what I think is) a great job in explaining what each hop gives you and understanding where you've tried that hop before. Read it through and enjoy.
Good solid information. I see though that it credits Richard Fuggle for the introduction of the Fuggles hop though interestingly no trace of his existence can be found! http://zythophile.wordpress.com/2009/04/02/befuggled-doubts-about-a-hops-birth/
I thought it was his kid too, but its his wife apparently (see the northern brewer page). The pictures are a lot funnier to me now that I know that Also I'll echo other comments--thanks for sharing, this is quite interesting!
Thank you every one for checking out my blog and special thanks to atomeyes for sharing. Yes, it is my wife who does the drawing (I don't have kids) with colored pencil. As for the Fuggle thing that marquis mentioned, I will have to review the article you posted. I try to be accurate as possible, though I am sure there are mistakes. The Oxford Companion to Beer gives credit to Richard Fuggle, which is why I did, but it seems lots of beer legends get proven false.
The hops in commercial beers is a good list, and I bookmarked the page. You can find a lot of information on brewery web pages. http://www.sierranevada.com/beers/ruthless.html
Yes, I use brewery pages to get the commercial usages. Rate Beer (can I mention that place by name on here?) sometimes has information, too, though I try not to rely on them, because sometimes they are out of date. Of course, breweries change recipes, particularly bittering hops, so those lists might become incorrect/out-of-date at some point.
There is always the tendency to accept information from sources which seem reliable. I've read about the Richard Fuggle association over many years and in all sorts of publications and like you I thought it perfectly reasonable.I never thought to question the veracity, particularly as it's only a trivial thing. But beer writing in general is riddled with assumptions and misinformation which just gets transferred from one source to another.Even the Oxford Companion has drawn much criticism on this score. And the beer styles guide in the CAMRA Good Beer Guide is riddled with fantasy ; of all organisations one ought to be able to trust CAMRA with information about British beers! http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/oh-dear.html http://barclayperkins.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/oh-dear-once-more.html
I completely agree. Randy Mosher has done a good deal to debunk a lot of beer myths, many of which have been disseminated by some of the most famous beer writers. Unfortunately, there is still plenty of misinformation out there, and it is almost impossible to avoid sometimes. I do my best to research everything as thoroughly as possible, but I know things are going to be wrong sometimes. I am still a student who has a lot to learn. I appreciate the feedback, and once I read through the article completely, I will look to update the Fuggle post.
The two blogs I've pointed you to are excellent sources of well researched information.They use contemporary sources and records. Ron Pattinson is a BA member patto1ro but I don't think Martyn Cornell graces these pages.
Martyn Cornell does indeed participate on BA; his BA ‘name’ is Martyartie. He commented not too long ago to one of my posts: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/hops-act-as-a-preservative.25169/#post-621129 Martyn has consistent views on his topics of interest. He reminds me of another BA who is a very active participant on BA. Cheers!