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.
The hop processing plant of CHMELARSTVI has been already successfully audited for Kosher certificate in the past.
The last visit in Zatec from the Rabbinate from Prague took place in the end of April 2020.
The representative of the Rabbinate praised CHMELARSTVI and BOHEMIA HOP for the system of product traceability. The whole certification systems (under Central institute for Supervising and Testing in Agriculture) from hop growers to final product where the hops are also tested and analysed several times on the way to customers plays also a vital role.
The visit also concluded that CHMELARSTVI operates the hop processing plant with a very good measures in place to conform with the Kosher certificate requirements and it is therefore no problem to issue the certificate for the hop pellets produced for BOHEMIA HOP in the processing plant of CHMELARSTVI.
The traditional Saaz spring running race Hopman half-marathon, which has a long-term support of Bohemia Hop, together with 10 km race could not take place this year in its usual form.
The organizers from Hopman triathlon, however, put together this race at least virtually where everyone could take part in this race alone on the official race track alongside the Ohre river from April 11 to May 1 and record the time on www.hopmantriatlon.cz. This time it was even possible to run both races and even try the track more times. Altogether 155 runners joined the race together with several employees of Bohemia Hop and CHMELARSTVI, cooperative Zatec and there were some very good results. Altogether it was a very good motivation for running in the actual restricted measures.
There was no starting fee for this race but the runners could send a financial contribution to a charity account of the town of Zatec: 107-4175780297/0100.
In March 2020, a regular conference "Application of the Czech Hops in Brewing" and the 2nd year of an accompanying beer competition Kazbek Cup 2020 were to be held. 37 breweries signed up for the second mentioned event with 43 samples in the categories of bottom fermented (24 samples) and top fermented (19 samples) beers. The annual organizer of this event is BOHEMIA HOP in cooperation with the Hop Research Institute.
During this meeting, Bohemia Hop wanted to present a new product Kazbek PE45 - Kazbek variety in the form of enriched pellets type 45 for dry hopping. Not only do these pellets have a higher content of alpha acids, but they also have a higher content of essential oils.
Although the conference and beer competition could not take place due to government regulations and measures (due to Covid-19 pandemic), we tested beers brewed from Kazbek variety from both pellets type 90 and 45. Our results were checked by accredited laboratories. The Pioneer Brewery also shared their practical experience with us.
Bohemia Hop has joined a project “Save the Pub” and became one of the proud partners of this event. The aim of this project is to connect pubs and restaurants with their customers and enable people to contribute to gastronomic operations in the current complicated situation and help them survive until they can resume their operations.
The initiative will run until current government measures are repealed and pubs and restaurants are reopened.
Hop growers in the Czech Republic started in the end of March the spring operations in the hop fields for the 2020 season.
The spring operations are starting with pruning, stringing and will be finishing with hop training in the beginning of May. The individual operations are spread in time depending on varieties, plant age and hop field location.
Despite the fact that the current situation has complicated the availability of seasonal labour for spring works, it now seems that the growers managed to secure seasonal labour from alternative sources for the individual operations. It is necessary to appreciate the work of the Hop Growers Union of the Czech Republic on this issue as well as interest of official authorities and Czech brewers, e.g. Pilsner Urquell and Czech beer and malt association. We would like to wish brewers as well as hop growers so that the situation with beer consumption returns to normal with this nearly summer weather as soon as possible.
You can follow the spring operations in the Czech hop fields on our Instagram account – bohemiahop_official – #bohemiahop
