Скачать или смотреть Czech hops harvest plummets due to bad weather, but beer stocks still high

(1 Sep 2012) Fear not, beer lovers!
Although the Czech hops harvest is expected to plummet by around a quarter this year due to bad weather, there's still plenty of stock to quench the huge thirst both at home and abroad.
Czechs are by far the biggest beer drinkers in the world per capita and the Czech Republic is also one of the top producers of hops - the dried seed cones that give beer its bitter taste and aroma.
Their hops are highly sought after and exported to about 80 countries, including Japan, China, Germany and Russia.
The Hop Growers Union of the Czech Republic said preliminary figures show the country's overall production is expected to fall by 26 percent to 4,500 metric tons from 6,088 metric tons in 2011.
Experts blame this drop in volume due to the deep freeze conditions of last winter and the drought this summer.
But, authorities say there are enough supplies following the exceptionally high harvests of the previous two years and that prices are unlikely to rise.
"This year's harvest won't have have an extreme impact on the price of hops because the price has been fixed with contracts one or two years ahead of time. Of course we can expect for the next harvest the price to go a bit higher," said Bohumil Pazler, the chairman of the union.
Hop plants, soaring seven metres (23 feet) into the air and supported by wire, have been cultivated on Czech territory for over 1,000 years.
The heartland near the western towns of Zatec and Rakovnik provides an ideal climate for the local dominant brand known as Saaz, a fine aroma hop with a low concentration of alpha acids which give beer its bitter flavour.
Almost 80 per cent of hops production is exported and more than two thirds of that is Saaz, which the Czechs call the "Rolls-Royce" of hops.
In 2007, Saaz was granted the EU's Protected Designation of Origin label as the top hops brand. It is used by brewers for premium products.

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