It was the hop harvest time and fresh hops time again. We were all looking forward to this special time of year, especially this year. After a sad time for brewing in the spring of this year, most of breweries are already back in their full operation. Some brewers decided to spread their beer portfolio among special beer styles. One of the brewing trends that has been here for already several years is brewing wet hopped beer. This way of brewing is not only about marketing and capturing consumer´s attention. It is about a social and educational interatction between hop growers and brewers. Every year during the time of harvest Bohemia Hop welcomes many brewmasters in Zatec to select the fresh hops and to pick them by hand. The organization and delivery of fresh hops in rigth time is logistically very difficult and challenging. The wet hops should be delivered to a boil kettle usually within couple of hours after picking. Quite often, one group of brewery staff is mashing while another group is picking the hops. During the meetings at farms, the growers and brewers share their experience and draw inspiration form each other. Bohemia Hop is very proud of organizing these traditional gatherings. We are also very glad that this event has become a tradition for many breweries. Based on our experience and brewer´s response, we are looking forward to organizing it again during 2021 harvest.
The Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture (CISTA) published final figures of a hop acreage in the Czech Republic updated on August 20, 2020. The total acreage reaches 4966,3 ha. Thus we recorded a small decline by 36,7 ha in comparison to the acreage of previous crop year (5003 ha).In the Saaz region, growers keep the hops on 3836,6 ha. It is 30,4 ha decline compared to the last crop year. The acreage of hops in the Auscha region is on decrease. Currently, the hops are grown on 504,1 ha. It is 11,9 ha less compared to the last crop year. In the Tirschitz region the hops are grown on 625,6 ha, 4,6 ha more in comparison to the 2019 crop year.The most of acreage is traditionally covered by the Saaz hops. Neverthless, the figures show 1,08 % decrease of the acreage of this fine aroma variety. The positive trends can be seen on the fields of Sladek and Premiant. Sladek hops recorded increase in acreage by 45 ha, the acreage of Premiant hops increased by 2,6 ha. The acreage of Agnus decreased by 5,2 ha.
Source: www.eagri.cz
The hop harvest in the Czech Republic started in the beginning this week in the Saaz hop growing region. The majority of growers in all Czech hop regions will begin this weekend starting Friday August 21. The firstly picked variety was Saaz but soon the growers will start also picking the Premiant variety. Varieties Sladek, Kazbek or Saaz Late will be picked in the end. The storms of past week led to collapse of around 60 ha of hop fields in all regions.
Czech hop growers invested again into many upgrades of technologies for hop picking and drying to maintain the high quality of Czech hops. The cold storage of CHMELARSTVI are ready to accept the new crop. The cooperative CHMELARSTVI which is a mother company of BOHEMIA HOP supplies also spare parts for all machinery and provides technology service to growers.
Due to the situation and restrictions that have been affecting events not only in our country, it was not possible to hold an annual meeting – “Application of Czech Hops in Brewing”. Therefore, the two organizers – the Hop Research Institute in Žatec (HRI) and Bohemia Hop decided to movet the conference to another year. However, all the beers for this event had already been brewed, therefore, the beer tasting took place within Bohemia Hop.
At the same time, we prepared several tasting sets and contacted some breweries (representatives of large and small ones) and asked them for help and cooperation with the beer tasting.
The whole report to be downloaded here
According to the Central Institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture (CISTA) report, the registered harvest area of hops is currently 4,947.4 ha. The largest increase in area was recorded for the Sládek variety.
Every year, on 30th of April and 20th of August, the CISTA updates data on the condition of acreage of hops by variety and region.
Currently, a slight decrease of the acreage is recorded, namely from 5004 ha in 2019 to 4947,4 ha, which is a decrease of 1.13%. It can be already assumed that the acreage of hops should be at the similar level as last year after the final update.
The largest acreage of hops is traditionally occupied by the Saaz region where growers keep the hops on 3 814,5 ha. It is 52,5 ha decrease compared to the last year´s crop which represents a decrease by 1.36% in the acreage of hop gardens. The acreage of hops in the Auscha region occupies 504,8 ha of the acreage, the area decreased by 11,2 ha, which is a decrease of 2.13%. In the Tierschitz region, the hops are grown on 628 ha, where the area has increased by 7 ha, which occupy 1,13% of the area.
Currently, the hops are grown on 505 ha. It is 11 ha less compared to the last year´s crop. In the Tirschitz region, the hops are currently grown on 628 ha, which 7 ha more in comparison to the crop in 2019.
The largest increase in area, by 19,9 ha, to the current 363,9 ha, was with the Sládek variety. The area of the Premiant variety stabilized at 190,5 ha (year-over-year decreased by 2,5 ha) and the acreage of the Agnus variety decreased by 5 ha to the current 53 ha. With the Saaz variety, which occupies the largest area in the Czech Republic, there was a slight decrease in the harvest area by 63 hectares. This represents a year-over-year decrease in all regions by 1.48% (in 2019 this variety covered an area of 4,264 ha). Growers are currently preparing areas for further hop planting in the autumn of 2020.
