No one is unaware that climate change, marked by unseasonably high temperatures and equally untimely torrential rains, it will rarely do any good to any type of crop.
Obviously, there is no plant or type of plantation that will not suffer to a greater or lesser extent from this new circumstancebut the truth is that we are no longer just talking about lower performance – which is evident – but that we can even talk about lower quality products.
A reality that may also seem quite obvious, but in which we sometimes go unnoticed when we do not fall into the large number of products that, in one way or another, They have to do with how the field is.
And now it’s beer’s turn, where the magazine Nature warns that the change in climatic circumstances not only threatens something as obvious as the cereal with which the beer is made, but also the person truly responsible for the flavor of the beer and that, dear friends, It is none other than hops.
Without hops there is no beer. Or there is no beer as we know it, Well, it is this plant, from the cannabaceae family, that will give aroma and bitter taste to the final beer. Without their help, beer would be little more than a sweet drink based on cereal malt that would have little or no bitterness and its aroma, far from any type of freshness, would also go in the direction of being almost a bun or cake.
The truth is Nature, echoing a study carried out jointly by several Czech scientific institutions —a country that, by the way, is one of the birthplaces of beer and one of the largest producers and consumers in the world— warn of a reality.
“Hops production can be reduced by between 4% and 18% by 2050 if farmers do not adapt their crops to a drier and warmer climate,” summarizes the study. However, we might think that we would be talking only about volumes and that the quality of the beer would be out of danger.
La Sagra – Pilsner style Lager Beer – Alc. 5.2% Vol. – Box of 24 cans of 330 ml – Total: 7920 ml
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This is not the case, as they also indicate, because a drier and warmer climate “would reduce the content of alpha acids in hops, responsible for the distinctive flavor and aroma of the beer, up to 31%”.
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