Source: AFP
Outside the warehouse in northwest Spain, it’s a frosty, foggy morning, but inside it’s serene, the warmth and LED lights tricking 360 hop plants into blooming as if it were late August.
Placed in a high mesh system of cables and wire, these vigorous climbers are in full bloom, covered in delicate green hops, which are believed to give the beer its unique aroma and crisp, refreshing bitterness.
Hop plants normally grown outside are part of a unique indoor growing program by Spanish startup Ekonoke, which has developed an alternative way of growing this climate-vulnerable crop in order to protect drinkable beer.
Experts say rising temperatures and increased drought have made hop crops in Europe increasingly unpredictable, reducing yields and reducing the quality of the alpha acids in the resins and oils that are so crucial to the flavor and character of hops. of different beers.
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Source: AFP
“Climate change is affecting the field and last year we saw a 40 percent drop in hop production in Europe,” said Giacomo Guala, hop policy adviser for Copa-Cogeca, which groups the main European Union farmers’ unions.
“It doesn’t rain when it should, it doesn’t rain too much when it shouldn’t, so there is no longer any predictability,” he told AFP.
High-tech hops
Brewers are already feeling this unpredictability.
Having a steady supply of hops was “crucial” as there was no alternative to provide that bitterness, explained Jose Luis Olmedo, head of research and development at Cosecha de Galicia, the innovation arm of Spanish brewer Hijos de Rivera, which makes Estrella Galicia beer. .
Source: AFP
Until now relying on field-grown hops, the Galicia-based brewery quickly saw the potential of Ekonoke’s indoor hops.
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When the startup raised €4.2 million in investment rounds in 2022, he said “a significant” chunk came from the brewery.
It also caught the attention of the world’s largest brewer AB InBev, joining its startup accelerator program.
“What brewers are most interested in is a guaranteed supply of quantity and quality,” said Ekonoke CEO Ines Sagrario at the 1,200-square-meter (13,000-square-foot) pilot farm in Chantada, where they gathered their first crop in mid-January. -February.
They began testing in their Madrid lab in 2019, starting with four plants and scaling up to 24, reducing growing time and using “15 times less water” than outdoors, aiming to “reach 20”.
“In this warehouse we control all environmental and nutrient parameters and lighting factors, using LED lights to provide the plant with what it needs when it needs it,” said Sagrario.
Source: AFP
The lights replicate the different colors and intensity of sunlight at each stage of the growth cycle, bathing fast-growing plants in an ambient purple glow.
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Cut the growth cycle in half
The heady aroma of hops permeates the air as a huge barrel full of hop cones is cut from its trellis, falling to the floor before being transported to a red harvester.
Grown without soil, the pods are fed by a closed system that allows for the continuous reuse of nutrient-infused water and uses no pesticides, relying on strictly controlled access protocols.
“In the field, although the cycle is six months, they can only harvest once a year, because you need the right growing conditions,” said agronomist and chief operating officer Ana Saez.
“Here, since we can control and repeat the ‘spring’, we’ve reduced the crop cycle to three months.”
Source: AFP
Multiple tests showed their hops contained “more alpha acids per kilogram” than those in the field, Saez said, pointing to the abundance of yellow lupulin dust clinging to the cones.
By summer, three grow rooms will be operating with more than 1,000 plants maturing on a staggered basis.
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“Once we finish learning everything we need to learn in this pilot program, we will build a full-scale industrial facility with 12,000 square meters of growing space,” said Sagrario, whose 12-member team has so far succeeded in breeding five different hops. varieties.
For Hijos de Rivera, it’s a project of “strategic” importance, with the brewery planning to have the facility fully operational “by the end of 2025,” Olmedo said.
Mirek Trnka, a bioclimatologist from the Czech Academy of Sciences, said hydroponics was one solution, but scaling up to meet market demands would be difficult.
Source: AFP
“Although hops are a minority crop, you would have to significantly increase operations to match current production worldwide with hydroponic growth,” he told AFP.
At Ekonoke, they see their role as using science and technology to protect hop biodiversity and ultimately develop new hybrids “to give more quantity and quality using fewer resources.”
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“People ask us if outdoor hop farmers feel threatened by us, but we don’t. Climate change threatens them,” Sagrario said.
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Source: AFP