How did an oast house work?

The oast was a kiln, with a plenum chamber fired by charcoal at ground floor and the drying floor directly above. The steep pitched roof channelled the hot air through the hops to the top. A cowl on the top of the roof allowed the hot air (‘reek’) to be drawn up through the kiln in a vacuum effect.

Is an oast an oven?

Below are all possible answers to this clue ordered by its rank….Oven; Oast Crossword Clue.

Rank Word Clue
67% OAST Oven
67% COOKER Oven
67% WOMB ‘Oven’
67% STOVE Oven

How do you spell oast house?

noun, plural oast-hous·es [ohst-hou-ziz]. Chiefly British. oast. a building housing several oasts.

Where are the oast houses in Kent?

Delve into history and visit some of Kent’s famous Oast Houses

  • Hop Farm Country Park, Tonbridge (Image via: www.geograph.org.uk)
  • Shepherd Neame, Faversham (Image via: kentattractions.co.uk)
  • Kent Life, Maidstone (Image via: www.kentlife.org.uk)

Why are there so many oast houses in Kent?

An oast house is actually a freestanding kiln for drying hops – which are used in the production of beer. Kent proved to have ideal soil for growing hops, and plenty of wood for the charcoal used in oast houses to dry the hops.

Are there oast houses in Norfolk?

Oast house. Only one in Norfolk and perhaps in East Anglia. Round, brick, louvred top to conical tile roof.

What does an oast house look like?

They consist of a rectangular one or two-storey building (the “stowage”) and one or more kilns in which the hops were spread out to be dried by hot air rising from a wood or charcoal fire below. The word oast itself also means “kiln”. The earliest surviving oast house is at Golford, Cranbrook near Tunbridge Wells.

What does oast mean?

: a usually conical kiln used for drying hops, malt, or tobacco.

What is a hop kiln?

: a kiln for drying hops.

Are oast houses only in Kent?

South East England Oasts are generally associated with Kent, and the oasthouse is a symbol associated with the county. They are also found in Sussex, Surrey and Hampshire.

Who owns the oast house?

Graphite Capital
Graphite Capital-backed NWTC, which owns the Oast House, in Spinningfields, and The Botanist, Alderley Edge, saw sales increase to £30.1m in the year to the end of March, with EBITDA increasing 63 per cent to £3.5m.

What is the top of an oast house called?

cowl
A cowl is a device used on a kiln to keep the weather out of and to induce a flow of air through the kiln. They are normally associated with oasts but can also be found on breweries (Letheringsett, Norfolk), maltings (Ware, Hertfordshire; Hadlow, Kent) and watermills (East Linton, East Lothian).

What was the original purpose of the oast house?

Early oast houses were simply adapted barns but, by the 18th century, the distinctive tall buildings with conical roofs had been developed to increase the draught. At first these were square but around 1800 roundel kilns were developed in the belief that they were more efficient.

Where are the oast houses located in Australia?

Oast houses are often called hop kilns in Australia. Tasmania is a major hop-growing area, as were parts of Victoria. During the 19th century, some of the Kentish hop growers emigrated, and took hops with them.

Where is the oast house in Frittenden Kent?

A traditional oast at Frittenden, Kent. An oast, oast house or hop kiln is a building designed for kilning (drying) hops as part of the brewing process.

How big was the first oast house in Sussex?

An agreement for the building of an oast in Flimwell in East Sussex in 1667 gave the size of the building as 30 by 15 feet (9.1 by 4.6 m) and another to be built there was to be built in 1671 being 32 by 16 feet (9.8 by 4.9 m) or 17 feet (5.2 m), having two kilns. The earliest surviving purpose built oast is at Golford, Cranbrook, built in 1750.