Five Minutes with Faram – UK Hop Grower Jimmy Barrett

Maddie Lewis
From a beer expert to a hop one, on this week’s Five Minutes with Faram, you join Paddie and award-winning hop grower Jimmy Barrett. Over to you guys.

Patrick Whittle
Hello everyone. I’m joined here with Jim Barrett, who’s a member of our Charles Faram Farms, recently winning an award for your Harlequin® 2024 harvest.

Jim Barrett
Yeah, that’s correct.

Patrick Whittle
And we’re going to do a little Five Minutes with Faram. Normally, we do this with a brewer, but we thought we’d do a different aspect and do it with a grower this time as well. So to start us off, Jimmy, what would you say your favourite hop is?

Jim Barrett
For this year, it’s got to be Harlequin®.

Patrick Whittle
Is that purely from a growing point of view, or do you just love the smell?

Jim Barrett
It’s got everything at the moment, but I’m hoping that within the development programme we’ve got, there are going to be other varieties we’re going to latch on to and be able to grow. At the moment, I’ve got a small acreage of CF 321, which hasn’t even got a name yet, that looks like it could be a nice big one as well. But we’re yet to grow that one in a bigger acreage, so that might be better than Harlequin®, we don’t know. Or it might be the variety that will go side by side with it, we’ll see.

Patrick Whittle
Would you say that has similar characteristics to Harlequin® when you’re growing it? Or is it very different?

Jim Barrett
It is a little bit different. It’s more hardy, it looks like it could be a hop grower’s variety, which would be a little easier to grow than Harlequin®. Harlequin® is a little bit difficult to establish.

Patrick Whittle
Oh, I see. But I guess that’s part of the Charles Faram Hop Development Programme. We’re constantly developing, creating, and growing new varieties. So what would you say your favourite beer is?

Jim Barrett
My go-to beer is always Speckled Hen Vintage, which is Greene King, and also Adam’s Reserve. They’re both quite powerful, but they’re lovely beers. Also, Batham’s and anything that Ledbury Brewery brews.

Patrick Whittle
Yeah, yeah.

Jim Barrett
You can’t say anything negative about his beers. They’re very good beers.

Patrick Whittle
Well, he does a lot of stuff with us and you guys. I know he’s quite involved with the growers, isn’t he? And he does some of our hop development beers as well.

Jim Barrett
I think you’ll find with Ledbury Brewery and Ant’s beers, you can’t have enough of them. You have one, then another. You can carry on. They really are session beers.

Patrick Whittle
Yeah, 100%. That’s nice. I guess you get to grow the product and then drink the final product as well. That’s really nice indeed. So if you’re having a Ledbury Real Ale, what would you pair that with food-wise?

Jim Barrett
I do like meat. So I love Ledbury Gold. It doesn’t really matter what the beer is—nice bit of beef or a nice lamb, yeah? Ledbury Gold is a very good pint. When Ant puts a bit of Olicana® in it, that, again, is a very nice pint.

Patrick Whittle
Have you got a favourite pub in the world, or should it be the local?

Jim Barrett
I quite like going to the Olga Stay pub because they’ve got Batham’s on, and The Wheatsheaf, because they’ve got Butty Bach. That’s another good brewery. And yeah, pretty much wherever Ledbury Brewery has got their beer in.

Patrick Whittle
So you’re not too fussed on the pub of choice then. On the farm, I guess hop picking involves a lot of different machinery, doesn’t it? You’ve got the kiln, the picking machine, all the tractors. Could you name one piece of machinery you couldn’t live without, or is that a difficult question?

Jim Barrett
I probably couldn’t do without my little 135 tractors. They’ve all got an implement attached to them, so I don’t have to change implements by changing tractors. I just jump from one to the other. I’d struggle to do without them. If I had to use just one tractor, you’d waste a lot of time unhooking and hooking up. Luckily, I have quite a few of these smaller Massey Fergie tractors. They’re 60 years old, but they serve their purpose on the farm.

Patrick Whittle
We find that even your picking machines are 50–60 years old. I guess if it’s built well, there’s no reason to replace it.

Jim Barrett
Exactly, Bruff machines still do their job.

Patrick Whittle
How many of those tractors have you got?

Jim Barrett
Twenty.

Patrick Whittle
Wow.

Jim Barrett
They’re all vineyard tractors, so they fit between hop vines.

Patrick Whittle
During picking season or drying in the kilns, do you put any music on? Do you have a go-to playlist or podcast?

Jim Barrett
When I’m spraying, I tend to put on an audiobook rather than music.

Patrick Whittle
Anyone in particular?

Jim Barrett
A bit of espionage, thrillers, something like that. I don’t read too many books, so someone has to tell me the story.

Patrick Whittle
Neither do I. I’d rather have an audiobook. If you weren’t a hop farmer, what else would you be doing?

Jim Barrett
I’ve been a hop grower from the start. We were a mixed farm. I liked the animals and a bit of corn growing, but really, it was just hops. That’s what excited me. If I had the choice back in my early 20s, I might have pursued diving more—maybe joined the Navy. But my father passed when I was in my early 20s, so I had to grow up quickly.

Patrick Whittle
What excites you about growing hops over other crops?

Jim Barrett
Every year is a challenge. We all have our basic way of growing hops, but you have to adapt.

Patrick Whittle
How many types of hop varieties do you grow?

Jim Barrett
Two main commercial varieties, but about 6,000 individual ones in the development programme.

Patrick Whittle
How do you keep track of them all?

Jim Barrett
I call Peter Glendening. They’re all numbered and mapped out.

Patrick Whittle
You treat them all the same?

Jim Barrett
Exactly the same. That way, we see which ones have weaknesses or strengths. If a plant struggles, it gets removed.

Patrick Whittle
It’s survival of the fittest. Because you mentioned CF 321—it’s a grower’s hop?

Jim Barrett
Yeah, compared to Harlequin®, which is difficult to establish.

Patrick Whittle
Have you got any hobbies outside of farming?

Jim Barrett
From November to February, I go diving.

Patrick Whittle
Where’s your favourite diving destination?

Jim Barrett
A place called Dahab in Egypt. I help with dive guiding there.

Patrick Whittle
How deep do you go?

Jim Barrett
My deepest was 52 meters, but the best diving is at 25 meters—more light, more coral.

Patrick Whittle
What’s next in the hop industry for you?

Jim Barrett
Hopefully, CF 321 takes off. We’re also looking into biostimulants to enhance plant defenses and reduce pesticide use.

Patrick Whittle
Well, I think that’s a nice place to end our Five Minutes with Faram. Thank you very much.

Jim Barrett
Thank you very much.