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Title
Hop research, brewing information, National Hop Association
Description
The Latin name for the hop is Humulus lupulus' or wolf of the woods. It is a tall climbing plant and is one of a small number of species that is distantly related to the cannabis plant i.e. hemp, the nettle and the elm. The plants are dioecious, which means that the males and females flower on separate plants, and only the females bear the hop cones required in the brewing process.
Flowering occurs in July and cones begin to form when changes occur within the flower. Made of soft tissue, the parts that form the cone are known as petals. It is on the inside of these petals that the lupulin glands form, looking like large yellow pollen grains. Lupulin is resinously sticky to the touch. a stiff oily substance of very complicated chemistry found nowhere else in the plant kingdom. It includes volatile oils whose presence and correct balance are important to the flavour of beer. The lupulin glands also contain the resins, the most important being the alpha acids, which confer bitterness and whose preservative proper- ties are of value to beer. Subtle differences are evident in the cones of different hop varieties.
The plants are perennials, produced from cuttings, and can be expected to remain productive for 10 - 20 years or more, sending their roots down to a depth of up to 12 feet (3.75 m). Each year they die back to ground level and regrow in the spring, with the support of string and poles, to a height of at least 16 feet (5 m). Each hop variety originates from an individual seedling, and the plant breeding programme of Horticulture Research International (HRI) at Wye in Kent specialises in producing crosses that yield new strains of hops with good brewing and growing characteristics.
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