After water and tea, beer is the most consumed drink worldwide, a fact attested firsthand via millions of beer bellies. However, just because something is popular doesn’t make it invincible.
A new study has found that climate change is threatening the cultivation of aromatic hops worldwide, a type of plant relied on heavily to lend beer its characteristic bitterness in addition to a wide variety of other tastes and flavour profiles. Hops form the lifeline for many craft beer artisans.
Technically, hops are just the green flowers of the climbing Humulus lupulus plant. Peeling back the cone-shaped flowers reveals sticky yellow pods, which are added to beer to give it aroma, flavour, and above all, the bitterness that helps balance out the intrinsic sweetness of malt.
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There are tons of varieties of hops around the world, and brewers mix and match them to get their desired flavour and aroma profile. Some cooks use them in cooking too, although much more sparsely.
This beer essential has begun to face significant challenges due to increasing weather woes, an all-too-familiar effect of climate change. Rising temperatures and scanty rain continue to not just hamper yields worldwide, but they’re also reducing how intense the compounds inside the hops are.
Analysing data from five sites in the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovakia and Poland showed that hops yields fell by 9.5-19.4% at most of these primary hops growing places in Europe. In addition, the concentration of the bitter compound, termed alpha acids, also fell in the plant.
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This isn’t just a one-off trend either; by 2050, yields are likely to be lower by 4-18% of the levels observed between 1989 and 2019, data showed. Alpha acids are also likely to fall by a massive 20-31% as temperatures rise and droughts become more frequent and severe in the region.
Considering that the crop is quite reliant on a stable and moderate climate to grow effectively, the team suggest quick remediating measures to help the plant and market adapt. However, at the current rate, it might become necessary to expand the area of aroma hops by 20% to compensate for future declines in potency and yields, the authors lament.
Further, to ensure the same quality and flavours, hop growers will have to invest extra in their cultivation. Experts think that this and the rising energy prices due to soaring costs of fossil fuels mean a hike in beer prices is on the horizon.
NOTE – This article was originally published in weather and can be viewed here
Tags: #beer, #climate, #climatechange, #environment, #getgreengetgrowing, #gngagritech, #greenstories, #lifeline, #plant, #weather
