UK: Hop growers benefiting from rise in craft brewing at home and abroad

British hops growers are benefiting from the rise in craft brewing at home and abroad, British Hop Association chair and hop grower Ali Capper was quoted as saying by Horticulture Week on September 9.

"Overall beer sales are flat or in decline, but that's at the commodity, price-driven end of the market, but the niche, craft end has seen exponential growth," she said.

"Then there are export opportunities to places like the US, where British hops tick the boxes."

But she added that this year's crop "is a little thin" as plants failed to put on lateral growth during the warm dry summer, following a late start to the growing season. "But the important thing is the
quality is there."

Britain's centre for hop breeding is well ahead of its competitors in other countries where hop production is much more significant, putting UK hop growing on a sound footing for the future, breeder Dr Peter Darby said in an interview on August 30.

"We are unique in the world in that we take just as much care over the male parent - and that's where most of the interesting characteristics have come from," he said.

Most significant of these has been dwarfing, allowing "hedgerow" growing formats. "The rest of the world is following in our work - dwarf varieties are now being developed in the USA, Germany and the Czech Republic. But they are still 20 years behind us," he explained.

The UK hop industry was decimated by Verticillium wilt in the 1980s, and has remained small in scale since. "We are at year five or six of a programme to find a wilt-resistant replacement, and are currently propagating for trials," Darby said. "We are still two or three years away from a commercial launch."

The British Hop Association represents the UK's 55 remaining hop growers, who represent just 1.6 per cent of global production.

Meanwhile East Kent Goldings has has become the first British hop to gain protected designation of origin (PDO) status in the EU. "It's grown in many parts of the world, but you can only call it East Kent Goldings if it's from here," Darby explained.

11 September, 2013