Hop Trip Liverpool

By Marko Mihalic

BeerX 2026: Trends From UK’s biggest trade show

Last month Uiltje Head of Cellar Marko Mihalic visited BeerX in Liverpool for a snapshot of the UK beer scene and where it is heading. BeerX is the biggest trade and seminar show in the UK, and a great opportunity for spotting what breweries are actually working with, which suppliers are pushing new products, and setting up beer collabs with like-minded hop-forward brewers. Here are a few of the things he discovered – innovations that will influence Uiltje beers in the months and possibly years to come.

 

Here’s something we already knew: yeast driven beers are having ‘a moment’. How do we know? Because at Uiltje we have been exploring cutting edge yeasts for years. We now even feel that we’re on the front end of this yeast wave. Already in January 2025 we worked with Irish yeast specialist WHC Lab for Wake Up Call… BOOM!, a Double NEIPA featuring WHC’s thiol releasing, non GMO ale yeast.

 

In Liverpool, we confirmed an upcoming yeast collaboration with White Labs. Yes, this is breaking news. The collab will explore a yeast strain that already has a bit of a cult following in our world: EXP 666. This summer White Labs’ Copenhagen team will come to Haarlem where we’ll geek out to create something really interesting.

 

We also hung out with WHC at BeerX and talked about their new Thiol Theory strain, which will be made available this summer. We’re definitely going to brew a couple of small batch IPAs, maybe as soon as this coming autumn.

 

What does this all mean? You don’t have to read between the lines. Some of the most interesting Uiltjes in the coming year will be yeast first IPAs.

Hop Extracts Becoming Mainstream

One of the clearest trends at BeerX was the amount of hop extract being used by well known breweries. Cloudwater, Track, DEYA and Sureshot all featured beers using extracts. They didn’t try to hide the fact, but instead openly discussed hop extracts as a way to lower hop costs while boosting aroma and flavour. The range of hop extract suppliers represented in these beers included BarthHaas, Freestyle Hops and Abstrax.

 

Of these, Prysma Hop Extract from BarthHaas really stood out. I tried several beers in the UK that used it, and Sureshot’s beer with Prysma Citra was a very good example. Naturally we requested a sample. Abstrax is also pushing hard on the extract front. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but we envision exploring what they’ve got in one of our IPA Series.

Fresh Hop Projects

Fresh hop brewing continues to be a thing, with a lot of buzz around Hopsteiner’s Solero hops. I tried a Pale Ale with Alora and Solero hops and was impressed. Solero is a cross between Cascade and a Hopsteiner male. We may just hop in a refrigerated van in September and head to Munich and brew in their lager brewery on site. If we do, Uiltje fans will be the first to know.

Shifts in the UK Beer Scene

Great part about visiting events like BeerX is the sheer amount of great beer you sample there. New hop varieties, new enzymes, new visions. Yakima Chief had one of the standout beers of the trip: a Fierce Brewery beer brewed with Cryo Fresh Strata hops, smooth and silky with tropical fruit notes. Crosby Hops is coming out with some new experimental hop varieties as well.

Two friends at a brewery druing the liverpool trip
Drinking a beer and rasiing a glass at liverpoool trip
Two friends at a stand in Liverpool

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