DAY 18: Brouwerij de Plukker, Rookop Bruin

DAY 18!! A dubbel-style ale from the very cool hop farm/ brewery in Poperinge, Belgium. The Rookop Bruin uses Admiral & Goldings hops and has a fruity, sweet character.

Hop farm of Joris Cambie:

"The hop is by nature a climbing plant. The hop plants need to be trained to grow up strings or wires which support the plants and allow them significantly greater sunlight exposure as well as growth than if they were left to grow along the ground.

Male and female flowers of the hop plant develop on separate plants; it is important to note that only the female plants are grown in hopfields to prevent pollination and preserve the integrity of the hop for brewing and other uses.

On his farm's 12 hectares Joris grows a mix of aroma and high alpha hops. The cultivars include the English varieties Goldings, WGV, Pilgrim, Fuggle, Phoenix, Challenger and the American varieties Cascade and Centennial."

Brouwerij de Plukker:

"Back in 2011 organic hop farmer Joris Cambie and brewer Kris Langouche decided to join forces. The Cambie family had been growing hops in the Poperinge fields for several generations by then and switched over to organic farming in 1997. Ample justification for Joris and Kris to launch a traditional-style brewery together on the basis of Joris’ hopmaking business.

This signalled the start of De Plukker and its unique story. This is the only hop company in Belgium with its own brewery, one where all the beers are made using only the farm’s hops. All the beverages are therefore organically certified.

In 2010, the brewery was installed inside the premises of the hop farm, in a hangar that was previously used for the picking and drying of the hops. The old kilns were taken down and replaced with brewing kettles and stainless steels fermenters. The inside of the hangar was completely rebuild to meet the food safety regulations.

After completing the necessary paperwork to startup a brewery, we could brew our first batch in our own brewery on November 9, 2011.

In the beginning the capacity of the brewhouse was 450 liters. Step by step this volume was increased to 750 liters per brew with the same kettles. Meanwhile new kettles have been added and the current capacity is now 1000 liters per batch.

In 2016 we acquired an automatic bottling line. Bottling was done by hand up till then. This is a big step forward in our development as it allows us to bottle bigger volumes faster. It also increases the shelf-life of our beers as there is no longer contact between beer and oxygen while bottling."

@deplukker - Twitter
Brouwerij De Plukker
https://www.plukker.be/en/

Enjoy this dark gem from a brewery that does it all!