British hop growers are facing a time of unprecedented need for new, aroma hop varieties that can compete with the imported hops that are predominantly used by breweries. Not only is there a need for competitive varieties, cultivars must also be highly resilient to changing climate conditions and biotic stressors. To boost hop acreage and encourage a return to UK production locally adapted, environmentally resilient varieties are needed.
Today, breeding of new hop varieties is achieved through classical breeding practices. This means that individual hop plants are selected based on their expressed traits such as habit, yield, pest and disease resistances, flavour and aroma. When it comes to breeding a new cultivar, hop breeders rely on information about genetic inheritance and select parents that can pass on useful traits to their progeny. When crosses are made, the agronomical performance and brewing potential of individual seedlings are assessed throughout a long selection process that can take up to 10-12 years.
The use of modern breeding techniques such as genetic markers could add tremendous value to the national hop breeding programme and to the UK hop industry. Genetic markers are biological tools that can be used to confirm interesting breeding traits such as high yield, disease resistance, aroma and flavour in new hop varieties.
Marker assays could be used as simple, low-cost laboratory tests on young hop seedlings and would decouple the need of visually confirming disease resistance/susceptibility of breeding lines.
Pilgrim is an excellent dual-purpose hop used in a range of ales at Summit Brewing Company, including our flagship Extra Pale Ale which just received another gold medal at the great American Beer Festival. Its clean bitterness, balanced flavour profile and unique aroma qualities of currants, gooseberries and cedar blend particularly well with caramel and roasted malts found in pale ales, porters and export stouts.
Damian McConn, Head Brewer, Summit Brewing Company