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Hop plant. Photo: Studio Eye C.

 

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The Hop Garden

From the Middles Ages to 1860, Swedish law required that farmers grow hops. Beer consumption was huge and for economic reasons the government demanded that the country be self-sufficient in hops.

National law dating from 1442 required every farmer to plant 40 hop stakes. In 1474, the number was
increased to 200. Farmers did not comply with the law, and it was tightened several times. Despite this, there were complaints in Västmanland province at the end of the 1700s that many farmers had stopped growing hops.

At the end of the 1800s, Bavarian steam breweries came to Sweden. They required huge amounts of consistent quality hops.

Swedish farms could not keep up with demand and importation of better quality hops from Germany began.

Hop plants are either female or male. Only female plants produce ‘cones’. In Sweden, male pants were removed from cultivation to prevent pollination of female flowers.

The cones were harvested in the autumn and, after drying, used in beer brewing. The cones contain a yellow powder that contains lupulin. Lupulin gives beer its bitter flavour and serves as a preservative.

At harvest time, stakes that support the plants are taken down and the plant’s runners are loosened and allowed to dry. The cones are then removed.

It is possible to eat the plant’s tender shoots, as with asparagus.

Hops can grow up to 12 metres in one season. Their runners can be soaked to separate the plant’s long fibres from its woody tissue. The fibres are ret, then dried and processed. They can be woven into cloth that is stronger than either linen or hemp.

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