by Outside the warehouse in north-west Spain, it’s a freezing, foggy morning but inside it’s balmy, the heat and the LED lights luring plants 360 hop to bloom as if it were the end of August.
Perched on a soaring grid system of cables and wire, these vigorous climbing plants are in full bloom, covered in delicate paper-green hops prized for imparting their unique aroma and crisp, refreshing bitterness to beer .
The hop plants are usually grown as part of a unique indoor farming project by Spanish start-up Ekonoke, which has developed an alternative way of cultivating this climate-vulnerable crop to protect the drinkability of beer.
Experts say increased temperatures and droughts have further stunted the growth of European hops, reducing yields and reducing the quality of the alpha acids in their resins and oils that are so critical to the flavor and character of various beers.
“Climate change is affecting the field, and last year we had a 40 percent drop in hops production in Europe,” said Giacomo Guala, policy adviser on hops for Copa-Cogeca, which groups the main European Union farmers’ unions. .
“You don’t get rain when you’re supposed to, or too much rain when you’re not supposed to, so there’s no predictability anymore,” he told AFP.
– High tech hops –
Brewers are already feeling that unpredictability.
Having a stable supply of hops was “crucial” because there was no other option to bring 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. .
Until now relying on hops grown in the field, the Galicia-based brewer quickly saw the potential of Ekonoke’s indoor hops.
When the startup raised 4.2 million euros in investment rounds in 2022, he said a “significant” chunk came from the brewery.
It also attracted the attention of the world’s largest brewer AB InBev, participating in its startup accelerator program.
“What brewers are most interested in is a guaranteed supply of quantity and quality,” said Ekonoke chief executive Ines Sagrario at their 1,200 square meter (13,000 square foot) pilot farm in Chantada, where they harvested their first crop in the middle. -February.
They began trials at their laboratory in Madrid in 2019, starting with four plants and scaling to 24, reducing the growing time and using “15 times less water” than outside, focusing on ” to reach 20″.
“In this warehouse, we control all the environmental and nutritional parameters and the lighting factors, using LED lights to provide the plant what it needs when it needs it,” said Sagrario.
The lights replicate the different colors and intensities of sunlight at each stage of the growth cycle when they bathe the rapidly growing plants in an ambient purple glow.
– Halving the growth cycle –
The delicate smell of hops fills the air as a huge loaf of bread laden with hop cones is cut from its rack, tumbling to the floor before being transported to a red logging machine.
When grown without soil, the beans are nourished through a closed system that allows the nutrient-infused water to be continuously reused and does not use pesticides, relying instead on strictly controlled access protocols.
“In the field, although the cycle is six months, they can harvest only once a year, because you need the right growing conditions,” said agronomist and chief operations officer Ana Saez.
“Here, because we can control and replicate the ‘spring’, we reduced the crop cycle to three months.”
Multiple tests showed that their hops contained “more alpha acids per kilogram” than in the field, Saez said, pointing to the abundance of yellow powdered lupulin clinging to the cones.
By summer, three grow rooms will be in place with over 1,000 plants maturing on a staggered basis.
“When we finish everything we need to learn in this pilot, we will be building a full-scale industrial facility with 12,000 square meters of growth area,” said Sagrario, whose 12-strong team has so far succeeded to replicate five different hops. cultivars.
For Hijos de Rivera, it is a project of “strategic” importance, and the brewery plans 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 it would be difficult to scale up to meet market demands.
“Even though hops is a minority crop, you would have to increase operations significantly to match current global production with hydroponic growth,” he told AFP.
At Ekonoke, they see their role as using science and technology to protect the biodiversity of hops and ultimately developing new hybrids “to give more quantity and quality using less resources” .
“People ask us if outdoor hop farmers feel threatened by us, but we’re not threatening them. Climate change is threatening them,” said Sagrario.
hmw/CHZ/imm
