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Hops
Hops were originally used in beer-making to stop the drink going sour. You can find hops growing in our Outdoor Gardens, near the Rainforest Biome.
Botanical description
Explore the plant
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Hop flower cones.
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The leaves are coarsely toothed.
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Hops require an average summer temperature of 16-18°C
Facts
- Hops can be grown in different ways: on hop hills (on 10-foot tall posts in a mound of compost) up sisal strings suspended from wires attached to chestnut posts trained by ‘butchers’ and ‘umbrella’ and ‘Worcester’ methods. Hop workers used to wear stilts to sort the wires out.
- Hops are susceptible to several pests and diseases and often require spraying.
Where it grows
Hops, like barley, come from South-East Asia, and have been used in beer for the last 10,000 years. In Europe they have been used since the 9th century and in Britain since the 15th century. They are now are grown across the Northern Hemisphere. They generally require an average summer temperature of 16–18°C, but do well over a wide range of soils provided they are fertile and moisture-holding: light to heavy loams are best.
Common uses
Hops were originally used in beer-making to stop the drink going sour. In the days when water in Britain was not clean, beer provided a nutritious thirst-quenching alternative. As late as the 1600s men, women and children sometimes drank around three litres of weak beer a day.
