As you know, the shortfall of alpha acid for the brewing industry from crops 2005, 2006 and 2007 resulted in acreage increases for crop 2008.

1) After quite a long winter, spring work was started in the hop fields some days ago. Some farmers are still fastening the wires for training the hop vines. Normally, this work will have already been done whilst the ground is frosty in winter in order to avoid surface damage to the soil by heavy machinery.

Traditionally used by the British cask ale brewers to add a strong, distinctive hop character to beer in cask, this practice has also now been adopted by the world craft brewing sector to produce a range of significantly different products.

"Table"

Every year we monitor the situation concerning residues of harmful metals by screening hops immediately after harvest. In our investigations, all important European varieties from different growing areas are considered. To guarantee a representative analysis, ten samples of large lots are selected and then combined into one composite sample for each variety. The latest results for the 2009 crop are presented in the table. Metal analysis has been conducted at the “Research Center Weihenstephan”. All concentrations given are mg/kg.

In crop 2008 we showed the variations in the contribution of hop oils to beer depending on the crop year. As a representative hop aroma substance we have chosen Linalool, which correlates rather well with the sonsory impression of a hoppy aroma in beer.

We presented a first estimate of crop 2009 hop production at drinktec. At that time there was still some uncertainty regarding the actual crop size and alpha contents of crop 2009 hops. The figures are now clearer. Based on the updated crop size of 111.483 mt of hops there will be a total of approx. 9,942 mt of alpha acid available for the coming year.

At the Drinktec 2009 we invited visitors to taste two Pilsner type beers. About 300 people assessed our beers, brewed using 50 % each of the new aroma varieties Saphir and Smaragd. Hop dosage, based on alpha-acid content, was as follows: …