Slight decrease | According to the report from the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture from December 2020, the total hop production reached 5925 tons in the Czech Republic in 2020. The table provides an overview of the hop production in all Czech hop growing regions – Saaz, Auscha and Tirschitz. The average yield for all hop varieties grown in the Czech Republic was 1.19 t per hectare. The decrease in production compared to 2019 was caused by a very dry July and warm August climate together with severe windstorms and hails storms during the vegetation.

Crop year 2020 | Mean alpha acid values determined for the freshly harvested hops of 2020 as published by the working group Arbeitsgruppe Hopfenanalyse (AHA), among them the laboratories of the German hop processing facilities.

New hop variety | Pearls have fascinated mankind for 5000 years. Their lustrous and elegant sheen makes the Akoya pearl very special, it is a synonym for quality but also for the achievements of modern breeding. Like the pearl breeders in Japan, the Hopsteiner hop breeders devoted much time and energy to developing their very own pearl. The outcome: Akoya.

Breeding success | Diamant, a new noble aroma variety and a daughter of the old Spalter landrace, was launched by the Society of Hop Research (GfH) after an extensive time in development and selection carried out at the Bavarian State Research Centre for Agriculture, Freising, Germany. Diamant is a modern, economical variety with a top-class flavour, and it is environmentally compatible.

Ludwig Narziß Prize | As with almost all public events, awards ceremonies have also been impacted by the current Covid restrictions.

Facilitating Research | The Bühler Group has set an ambitious goal for itself: to minimize waste and to reduce water and energy usage by 50 percent in the value chains of its customers by 2025.

Palatia Malz GmbH is a leading German family-owned malting group founded in 1899 and now managed in the third generation.

Sustainable solution | In the past, hops have been extracted with supercritical carbon dioxide up to a maximum pressure of 300 bar. This year, an extraction plant will be commissioned that will operate at 500 bar of pressure. The primary motivation behind increasing the pressure to 500 bar is the energy savings gained due to the enhanced properties of CO₂ as a solvent at this pressure along with the greater contribution to sustainability. The hop extracts obtained at 500 bar are only slightly different than those extracted at 300 bar of pressure, which is the focus of this report.

Gluten analysis | The methylotrophic yeast Pichia pastoris is a widely used organism for industrial production of a multitude of recombinant proteins. It is used in the project, presented here, for biosynthesis (gene expression) of gluten from wheat, barley and rye. Individual proteins produced in this way could, as reference material, make gluten analysis in the beverage sector more reliable, with a focus on the beer product. At the same time, it leads to a deeper understanding of P. pastoris as a production platform.

Local & collaborative | In the United States, farmers grow the majority of the nation’s malt-quality barley in the Northern Great Plains. However, as craft brewing continues to prosper across the Southeast, brewers are looking for ways to stand out with distinctive beers. For many, that means turning to local ingredients – and maltsters, farmers and researchers are stepping up to the challenge.

Argentinian hops | In the 1980s, Quilmes Brewing and Malting Company started its own hop breeding program in Argentina with the aim of developing new varieties adapted to the local agro-climatic environment and obtaining better yields. As a result, in the 1990s, the Mapuche and Traful varieties were registered, and another cultivar followed under the name of Nahuel in 2018. Due to the greater demand from craft breweries interested in hops with different aroma profiles, the growing areas and the yields of these varieties have been increasing over the last ten years.