A FARM has spent more than £100,000 on facilities to process hops based on customer feedback.

The investment has seen a hop pellet mill installed on the farm near Bromyard, which should keep hops at their best.

Independent farm Brook House Hops have around 100 acres of land in the west of Herefordshire.

Selling directly to brewers, the firm decided to cut out the hop merchants to provide quality to craft and traditional brewers.

Bosses were asked by customers to provide pelleted hops alongside their whole leaf offerings.

Sales manager Sebastian Nielsen said: "Our main goal is to serve the needs of brewers, so we are building relationships with them and trading in ways that benefit both parties."

"That means selling hops directly and sourcing interesting and unique varieties, which we can do thanks to our farm relationships across the globe.

"When customers started asking for our hops in pellet form, we took the decision to seriously consider the request."

Last month, they decided to invest the six figure sum into a state of the art, low-temperature pellet processing facility.

The farm's owner Will Kirby added: "The key to the pellet creation process is cooling and making sure the pellets do not reach high temperatures, as this would mean they lose their vitality, flavour and aroma.

"Brewers want the freshest hops and we wanted a solution which gave us pellets but maintained that Brook House freshness.

"We have achieved that with this investment."

After a week of setting up and testing the equipment, the team are now in full production.

"This investment symbolises our commitment to quality" Mr Nielsen added.

"Brewers want high-quality pellets that dissolve properly in their brewing process.

"This is a state of the art pellet mill and our goal is to make the best pellets on the market."