Environment and weather influence on quality and market value of hops

Abstract

The paper analyses the influence of four main weather parameters on alpha-acid contents for the main hop variety Aurora (Super Styrian Aurora) in Slovenian production for the time period 1994-2009. Through inspection of correlation coefficients, it tries to find specific times of the year when the weather conditions affect the alpha-acid content with a view to prediction in Slovenia. The most significant time periods of weather that influenced the alpha-acid contents of the Aurora variety during the growing season are identified as attributes of temperatures calculated from the interval from 25th to 30th week (T2530, r = -0.88, P < 0.01), as attributes of rainfall and sunshine from the interval from 25th to 29th week (R2529, r = 0.85, P < 0.01 and S2529, r = -0.75, P < 0.01) and attributes of relative humidity from the interval from 27th to 32nd week (RH2732, r = 0.71, P < 0.01). The attribute T2530 represents the sum of active temperatures from June 18 to July 29 of that year. Similarly, the attribute R2529 corresponds to the rainfall (in mm or L/m2) that fell during the June 18 to July 22 etc.

Keywords

• hop quality
• alpha-acids
• cv. aurora
• forecasting
• weather attributes
• hop market