News, nuggets and longreads 12 September 2026: Penda’s Fen

Every Saturday we round up the best writing about beer from the past week. This time, we’ve got hop farming, Nottingham, and Cluedo. First, some news from the climate change frontline: the last commercial hop farm in Surrey is winding up as a result of hotter, drier English summers. As reported by Theo Whyte and Jacob Panons for the BBC, the Hampton Estate at Puttenham had its hop harvest ruined for the second year in a row: Bill Biddell, the estate’s chief executive, said: “This year has been an absolute disaster, obviously because of the weather.” … Hampton Estate has specialised in growing fuggles hops, an old variety first cultivated in the 19th Century, which flavours traditional cask ales… Bill Biddell told BBC’s Farming Today: “There are loads of people who have been involved with Hampton hops for a very long time… Everybody who lives in the village of Puttenham, where the hop gardens are, has grown up with hops… What hops normally need is a lovely English maritime summer. A…