Editing Hops (section)

==World production==
Hops production is concentrated in moist temperate climates, with much of the world's production occurring near the [[48th parallel north]]. Hop plants prefer the same soils as potatoes and the leading potato-growing states in the United States are also major hops-producing areas.<ref name="peicanada.com">{{Cite web |title=Hops industry has great potential for Atlantic Canada |url=https://www.peicanada.com/island_farmer/news/hops-industry-has-great-potential-for-atlantic-canada/article_647cda78-280a-5600-8676-20673eb7ba1f.html |website=peicanada.com|date=12 December 2012 }}</ref> Not all potato-growing areas can produce good hops naturally, however: for example, soils in the [[The Maritimes|Maritime Provinces]] of Canada lack the [[boron]] that hops prefer.<ref name="peicanada.com" /> Historically, hops were not grown in Ireland, but were imported from England. In 1752 more than 500 [[ton]]s of English hops were imported through Dublin alone.<ref>"The London magazine, 1752", page 332</ref>

Important production centres today are the [[Hallertau]] in Germany,<ref>[http://www.hmelj-giz.si/ihgc/doc/5-EC%20table%20Nov06.pdf Summary of Reports: Nürnberg, Germany, 14 November 2006], International Hop Growers' Convention: Economic Committee</ref> the [[Žatec]] ([[Saaz hops|Saaz]]) in the [[Czech Republic]], the [[Yakima River Valley|Yakima]] ([[Washington (state)|Washington]]) and [[Willamette Valley|Willamette]] (Oregon) valleys, and western Canyon County, Idaho (including the communities of [[Parma, Idaho|Parma]], [[Wilder, Idaho|Wilder]], [[Greenleaf, Idaho|Greenleaf]], and [[Notus, Idaho|Notus]]).<ref>{{Cite web |title=NCGR-Corvallis Humulus Genetic Resources |url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/humulus/huminfo.html#use |access-date=20 May 2012 |website=www.ars-grin.gov |publisher=Ars-grin.gov}}</ref> The principal production centres in the UK are in [[Kent]] (which produces Kent Goldings hops), [[Herefordshire]], and [[Worcestershire]].<ref>Norman Moss, [http://www.hops.co.uk/sectionone/Worcester.htm A Fancy to Worcesters] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929072147/http://www.hops.co.uk/sectionone/Worcester.htm |date=29 September 2007 }}, [http://www.ars-grin.gov Agricultural research Service], US Department of Agriculture</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Herefordshire Through Time – Welcome |url=http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/agriculture%20_industry/hops_history.htm |access-date=24 May 2012 |website=www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk |publisher=Smr.herefordshire.gov.uk |archive-date=27 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081227010957/http://www.smr.herefordshire.gov.uk/agriculture%20_industry/hops_history.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref> Essentially all of the harvested hops are used in beer making.{{Cn|date=January 2021}}

[[File:Yakima-Valley-Hop-Yard.jpg|thumb|right|Early season hop growth in a hop yard in the [[Yakima River Valley]] of [[Washington (state)|Washington]] with [[Mount Adams (Washington)|Mount Adams]] in the distance]]

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Hop producing country || 2020 hop output in [[tonne]]s (t)<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 2021 |title=International Hop Growers' Convention – Economic Commission Summary Reports |url=https://hopfen.de/wp-content/uploads/22.02.2021-Summary-Reports-IHGC-Meeting.pdf |access-date=5 June 2021 |archive-date=5 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210605195423/https://hopfen.de/wp-content/uploads/22.02.2021-Summary-Reports-IHGC-Meeting.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>
|-
| United States || style="text-align:right;"| 47,541
|-
| Germany || style="text-align:right;"| 46,878
|-
| China || style="text-align:right;" | 7,044
|-
| Czech Republic || style="text-align:right;" | 5,925
|-
| Poland || style="text-align:right;"| 3,417
|- 
| Slovenia  || style="text-align:right;" | 2,723
|-
| Australia || style="text-align:right;" | 1,714
|-
| New Zealand || style="text-align:right;" | 1,250
|-
| UK/England || style="text-align:right;" | 924
|-
| Spain || style="text-align:right;" | 908
|-
|-
| France || style="text-align:right;" | 767
|-
|}

===Cultivation and harvest===
[[File:Chmelnice.jpg|thumb|left|A superstructure of overhead wires supports strings that in turn support [[Bine (botany)|bine]]s.]]

Although hops are grown in most of the continental United States and Canada,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Humulus lupulus L. common hop |url=http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=HULU |access-date=13 September 2013 |website=USDA Plants database}}</ref> cultivation of hops for commercial production requires a particular environment. As hops are a climbing plant, they are trained to grow up trellises made from strings or wires that support the plants and allow them significantly greater growth with the same sunlight profile. In this way, energy that would have been required to build structural cells is also freed for crop growth.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Keegstra |first=Kenneth |date=1 October 2010 |title=Plant Cell Walls |journal=Plant Physiology |language=en |volume=154 |issue=2 |pages=483–486 |doi=10.1104/pp.110.161240 |issn=1532-2548 |pmc=2949028 |pmid=20921169}}</ref>

The hop plant's [[Plant reproductive morphology|reproduction]] method is that male and female flowers develop on separate plants, although occasionally a fertile individual will develop which contains both male and female flowers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=C. C. Ainsworth |title=Sex Determination in Plants |date=15 June 1999 |publisher=Garland Science |isbn=9780203345993 |volume=38 |pages=167–223 |chapter=5 Sex Determination in Plants |series=Current Topics in Developmental Biology |doi=10.1016/s0070-2153(08)60247-1 |pmid=9399079 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MmO6rXOyvasC&pg=PA146}}</ref> Because pollinated seeds are undesirable for brewing beer, only female plants are grown in hop fields, thus preventing pollination. Female plants are propagated [[Vegetative reproduction|vegetatively]], and male plants are culled if plants are grown from seeds.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Interactive Agricultural Ecological Atlas of Russia and Neighboring Countries. Economic Plants and their Diseases, Pests and Weeds. ''Humulus lupulus'' |url=http://www.agroatlas.ru/cultural/Humulus_lupulus_K_en.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120310182625/http://www.agroatlas.ru/cultural/Humulus_lupulus_K_en.htm |archive-date=10 March 2012 |access-date=20 May 2012 |website=www.agroatlas.ru |publisher=Agroatlas.ru}}</ref>

Hop plants are planted in rows about {{convert|2|to|2.5|m|ft|0}} apart. Each spring, the roots send forth new [[bine (botany)|bine]]s that are started up strings from the ground to an overhead trellis. The cones grow high on the bine, and in the past, these cones were picked by hand. Harvesting of hops became much more efficient with the invention of the mechanical hops separator, patented by [[Emil Clemens Horst]] in 1909.<ref>{{Cite web |date=22 October 2013 |title=Innovative Hopping Equipment: New Belgium's Dry Hop Dosing Skid |url=https://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/equipment-systems/innovative-hopping-equipment-new-belgiums-dry-hop-dosing-skid/ |access-date=4 May 2021 |website=Craft Brewing Business |language=en-US}}</ref>

Hops are harvested at the end of summer.<ref>{{Cite web |date=21 November 2014 |title=The Anatomy of a Hop |url=https://craftbeeracademy.com/hop-anatomy/ |access-date=5 June 2021 |website=Craft Beer Academy |language=en-US}}</ref> The {{not a typo|bines}} are cut down, separated, and then dried in an [[oast house]] to reduce moisture content. To be dried, the hops are spread out on the upper floor of the oast house and heated by heating units on the lower floor. The dried hops are then compressed into bales by a [[baler]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Hops are Harvested and Used in Brewing • Bale Breaker Brewing Company |url=https://www.balebreaker.com/blog/how-hops-are-harvested-and-used-in-brewing |access-date=5 June 2021 |website=www.balebreaker.com |archive-date=26 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220926115220/https://www.balebreaker.com/blog/how-hops-are-harvested-and-used-in-brewing |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Hops Lupulin Macro.jpg|thumb|Macro shot of lupulin on a hop's cone]]

{{Anchor|lupulin}}Hop cones contain different oils, such as lupulin, a yellowish, waxy substance, an [[oleoresin]], that imparts flavour and aroma to beer.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Andrew |first=Sewalish |title=Hops: Anatomy and Chemistry 101 |url=http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2009/sewalish_andr/Humulus%20Lupulus%20-%20Common%20Hops/Hop%20Anatomy%20and%20Chemistry%20101.html |access-date=13 September 2013 |website=bioweb.uwlax.edu |archive-date=27 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927135922/http://bioweb.uwlax.edu/bio203/s2009/sewalish_andr/Humulus%20Lupulus%20-%20Common%20Hops/Hop%20Anatomy%20and%20Chemistry%20101.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Lupulin contains [[lupulone]] and [[humulone]], which possess antibiotic properties, suppressing bacterial growth favoring brewer's yeast to grow. After lupulin has been extracted in the brewing process the papery cones are discarded.

=== Migrant labor and social impact ===
[[File:Kratky, Frantisek - Sklizen chmele (ca 1898).jpg|thumb|Hops harvest in the [[Kingdom of Bohemia]] (1898)]]
[[File:NMA.0063746 Humleplockning mellan Vånga och Näsum.jpg|thumb|Hops harvest in [[Skåne]], Sweden, in 1937]]

The need for massed labor at harvest time meant hop-growing had a big social impact. Around the world, the labor-intensive harvesting work involved large numbers of migrant workers who would travel for the annual hop harvest. Whole families would participate and live in [[hopper hut|hoppers' huts]], with even the smallest children helping in the fields.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Connie's Homepage – Hop Picking in Kent |url=http://www.btinternet.com/~hunny.pot/homepage/hopping.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721103026/http://www.btinternet.com/~hunny.pot/homepage/hopping.html |archive-date=21 July 2012 |access-date=20 May 2012 |website=www.btinternet.com |publisher=Btinternet.com}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=George Orwell: Hop-picking |url=http://theorwellprize.co.uk/george-orwell/by-orwell/essays-and-other-works/hop-picking/ |access-date=20 May 2012 |website=www.theorwellprize.co.uk |date=20 October 2010 |publisher=Theorwellprize.co.uk |archive-date=26 March 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120326084442/http://theorwellprize.co.uk/george-orwell/by-orwell/essays-and-other-works/hop-picking/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The final chapters of [[W. Somerset Maugham]]'s ''[[Of Human Bondage]]'' and a large part of [[George Orwell]]'s ''[[A Clergyman's Daughter]]'' contain a vivid description of London families participating in this annual hops harvest. In England, many of those picking hops in [[Kent]] were from eastern areas of London. This provided a break from urban conditions that was spent in the countryside. People also came from Birmingham and other Midlands cities to pick hops in the [[Malvern, Worcestershire|Malvern]] area of Worcestershire. Some photographs have been preserved.<ref>Smith, Keith. ''Around Malvern in old photographs.''. Alan Sutton Publishing, Gloucester. {{ISBN|0-86299-587-6}}.</ref>

The often-appalling living conditions endured by hop pickers during the harvest became a matter of scandal across Kent and other hop-growing counties. Eventually, the Rev. [[John Young Stratton]], Rector of Ditton, Kent, began to gather support for reform, resulting in 1866 in the formation of the Society for the Employment and Improved Lodging of Hop Pickers.<ref>Kentish Gazette, 23 October 1866</ref> The hop-pickers were given very basic accommodation, with very poor sanitation. This led to the spread of infectious diseases and led to contaminated water. The 1897 [[Maidstone typhoid epidemic]] was  partly as a result of hop-pickers camping near the Farleigh Springs which supplied Maidstone with water.<ref>Sarah Rogers, ‘The Nurses of the 1897 Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic: Social Class and Training. How representative were they of mid-nineteenth century nursing reforms?’ (Unpublished Master of Letters dissertation, Dundee, March 2016),</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hales |first=I. |date=1984 |title='Maidstone Typhoid Epidemic' |journal=Bygone Kent. |volume=5 |issue=4 |pages=217–223}}</ref>

Particularly in Kent, because of a shortage of small-denomination coin of the realm, many growers issued their own currency to those doing the labor. In some cases, the coins issued were adorned with fanciful hops images, making them quite beautiful.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Furiners: A Forgotten Story |url=https://www.brewtek.ca/the-furiners-a-forgotten-story#hop-tokens |access-date=22 July 2019 |website=www.brewtek.ca |archive-date=4 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200504221219/https://www.brewtek.ca/the-furiners-a-forgotten-story#hop-tokens |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Indian_hop_pickers,_Puget_Sound_region,_Washington,_ca_1893_(LAROCHE_78).jpeg|thumb|Puget Sound region, Washington, c. 1893]]

In the United States, [[Prohibition]] had a serious adverse effect on hops production, but remnants of this significant industry in the western states are still noticeable in the form of old hop kilns that survive throughout [[Sonoma County, California]], among others. Florian Dauenhauer, of [[Santa Rosa, California|Santa Rosa]] in Sonoma County, became a manufacturer of hop-harvesting machines in 1940, in part because of the hop industry's importance to the county. This mechanization helped destroy the local industry by enabling large-scale mechanized production, which moved to larger farms in other areas.<ref name="DauenhauerPD">{{Cite news |last=Gaye LeBaron |author-link=Gaye LeBaron |date=29 June 2008 |title=Hops, once king of county's crops, helped put region on map |work=Press Democrat |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1673&dat=20080629&id=IIZPAAAAIBAJ&pg=1979,6896317 |access-date=4 September 2012}}</ref> Dauenhauer Manufacturing Company remains a current producer of hop harvesting machines.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://dmfg.com/about/ |title=About |website=dmfg.com |access-date=3 August 2021}}</ref>