Beer is made of barley and hops. But why is a hop called a hop? No-one on the Hop Route in George was able to tell me, and even a dictionary of etymology (the history of words, Miranda) was tantalisingly vague. Seeing that hops were first grown about a thousand years ago in the area of Europe now called Bavaria, it is likely that it comes from a Teutonic word ‘hoop’ (heap) which indicates the way in which hops were left to dry.
Etymology aside, hops are what makes beer beer. Any beer without hops is a mere ale. Hops are what gives beer its distinctive bitter taste as well as acting as a preservative. South African Breweries is the second-largest beer manufacturer in the world, and beer is the third-most consumed beverage of all. So we are talking a lot of beer indeed. And the hops for all the beer brewed in the whole of Africa is grown around George, that unassuming little town on the Garden Route. George is the only area in Africa where hops are grown. The hop fields stretch out inland of the town, along the mountain pass country of the Outeniqua Pass and the Montagu Pass, protected from sea winds by the Outeniqua Mountains. A hop farm is an intriguing sight. About an acre of land at a time is decorated with high frames (about four metres high), interlaced with a triangular pattern of vertical wires. The hop plants are trained to grow up these wires, resulting in a tall trellis of intense green. Among the fields are the hop heaps, giving off an intense aroma that is similar, but not identical, to the smell of a brewery. The George Hop is a specially adapted plant, as the Southern Cape is not really ideal for hop-growing. A new variety has been developed by a George botanist that will require less babysitting, thus increasing hop yields even more. Further, hops are related to the cannabis plant and therefore have some herbal uses, although the effects of smoking hops is not recorded. One wonders why George, with all these hops within literal hopping distance, hasn’t developed a local brewing industry right on the spot of Africa’s largest hop fields. Instead, the hops are all packaged up and sent off to the SAB breweries in the big cities. Mmm, either this is a missed opportunity or a case of a production monopoly. After all, once you’ve seen one hop you’ve seen ‘em all, so there is not much about the plant itself to attract attention. So George has to rely on other attractions along its Hop Route to pull in the punters. And of these there are a surprising number. The Hop Route therefore is a bit of a misnomer, but one can charitably assume that the name was chosen to impart a little local knowledge and to highlight the places along George country roads between the hop fields. If a Route has a beginning, then the Hop Route begins at the imposing gates of the luxury Hyatt Regency Hotel at Ou Baai near Herold’s Bay. The Hyatt hedges its bets by also belonging to the Brandy Route, which appears to diverge at this point. The Ou Baai Hyatt also features the first golf course designed by Ernie Els, along with an impressive hotel, residential park and a view to one side of the dreaming blue Outeniqua Mountains and to the other side the restless sea. The next attraction on the route is the Redberry Strawberry Farm, which offers pick-your-own strawberries, a strawberry-shaped maze, a miniature train, tea garden, a shop selling every conceivable item connected to strawberries (with a really wicked, not-too-sweet-but-extremely-fruity strawberry jam.) Further along the road is the Silver Lily cheese farm which makes authentic Dutch cheese in various flavours. A field next door is the venue for Klompengolf – featuring golf balls the size of pumpkins and golf clubs with a wooden clog at the business end. The field is ploughed with furrows to add interest to the game, and a lot of beating-around-the-bush goes on, interspersed with shrieks of laughter or alarm as shots go wide, head off into the rough, or threaten the continued existence of co-golfers. Just before the Outeniqua Pass, there is a turn-off to Outeniqua Orchids and the home of Elsa Hall. An unassuming greenhouse on Elsa’s property contains an almost uncountable number of different species of orchid, with Elsa giving a guided tour on request. There are some orchids the size of shopping baskets, while others are so tiny and shy they are hard to spot. Elsa cultivates and sends orchids all over the world. Over the wonderful pass, you find Herold Wines, the coldest vineyard in Africa. Cellar mistress Ingrid Scheepers will conduct a wine tasting of these wines, while viticulturist Vivienne Harpur talks self-deprecatingly about wine production. Vivienne is that refreshing creature – a wine-snob without snobbery. The road to the wine estate also goes through the hop farms of George, and back over the beautiful Montagu pass, with history and scenery on either side.
Visit the Hop Route website www.outeniquacountryhop.co.za
