Our hop farm

Hops!

Humulus lupulus, better known as hop, is a plant described by biologists as a member of the hemp family or Cannabaceae, a family of topiary or flowering plants. The family consists of two genera, on the one hand Cannabis hemp - known as a drug - and on the other hand Humulus lupulus, mainly known as a plant whose fruit cones are used as a preservative and/or flavouring in the preparation of beer.

Since 2015, we will be growing Hop farm Van Begeerte, some specific hop varieties with which we brew ourselves.

Hop is a perennial plant - meaning it lives for more than two years and flowers several times during its life. The plant overwinters as a rhizome and the annual shoots grow as a right-winding climbing plant into tendrils that can reach up to six metres in height.

The leaves are opposite, long-stalked with support leaves at the base of the leafstalk and have a heart-shaped base and serrated edge. Usually, they are lobed, with three, sometimes five lobes.

The flowers, which appear in Northwest Europe from July to September, grow in panicles in the leaf axils. In the male inflorescences, the flowers stand separately at the end of the plume stems, in the female inflorescences are spikes with several flowers at the end of the plume stems.

source entry: Humulus Lupulus - Köhler's Medizinal Pflanzen

These hop flowers develop into the characteristic 'bubbles', egg-shaped fruit cones that grow on the female plant in August and are used as preservatives and flavourings in the preparation of beer.

Hop in beer

In the fruit cones or hop cones of the female plant, yellow lupulin grains with a high content of alpha and beta acids and essential oils are formed which give the plant its characteristic aromas. Initially hops were added to beer as a preservative but nowadays they are mainly added for their bitter taste and aroma.