How hops grown indoors could save the beer industry with cheaper, more flavourful choices
A global shortage of hops, which provide beer with its bitter, fruity flavour, could be solved with breakthroughs in indoor growing methods
Shrinking harvests of hops are making beer more expensive, but researchers are raising hopes that this indispensable brewing ingredient could be grown indoors to make it cheaper.
Earlier this year, a Spanish business called Ekonoke said it had figured out how to grow hops indoors. Now Japan’s Kirin, which makes the beer of the same name, appears to be on the cusp of a breakthrough in increasing hop yields through indoor cultivation.
The Kirin Beverage Research Institute for the Future and the University of Tokyo’s Culta began last year to research ways to grow hops indoors, not an easy task because of the spread of the plant’s roots and its requirement of a lot of water and light.
A breakthrough could not only mean an easing in price increases, but also potentially greater variety in flavour, much of which comes down to increasingly expensive regional hop varieties.
“With this indoor cultivation technology, Culta has succeeded in harvesting hops in other seasons, whereas outdoors they could only be harvested in the summer,” Kirin Holdings announced recently.