What is an Oast House?
An oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for the drying of hops as part of the brewing process. These historical buildings can usually be found in the majority of former hop-growing areas. Many oasts are now redundant and have been converted into houses or museums. The names oast and oast house are used interchangeably in the counties of East Sussex and Kent.
These architecturally striking buildings tend to consist of a rectangular one or two storey building (the "stowage") and one or more kilns in which the hops were spread out for drying. The rising of hot air from either a wood or a charcoal-fire would allow the hops to dry out. The drying floors were thin and perforated to allow for heat to pass through and escape through a cowl in the roof which turned in the wind. The freshly picked hops from the local fields would be raked in to dry and then raked out to cool. They would then be bagged up and sent to the brewery to be turned into beer.
The oldest documented oast house is at Golford in Cranbrook near Tunbridge Wells and dates from sometime in the 17th Century. The early oasts were barns that had been adapted in order to produce dried hops. By the 18th Century, those in the industry began to develop tall buildings and cone shaped roofs in order to allow for an increased draught.
The roofs were initially square but it is estimated that 1800 roundel kilns were developed as a result of the well held belief that they were more efficient. Square kilns remained popular in both the areas of Hereford and Worcester. They later came back into fashion in the south east of the UK in the later 19th Century. In the 1930s, the cowls were replaced by louvred openings as electric fans and diesel oil ovens were employed. Today hops are dried industrially.
