301: Zdeněk Rosa of Bohemia Hop Is Bullish on the Future of Czech Hops
Craft Beer & Brewing Magazine Podcast
Czech Hops and the Climate Change Challenge
With climate change, we're starting to see more of these years here and there throughout the agronomic world. Some reports had the Czech harvest off by 40 or 50%. But every year this moving went up and we are achieving better results. What drives that increase? It's a I would say good care of the growers for the hops. So using younger plants and repenting quicker than we used to do.
When brewers think of Czech hops, they naturally think of Saaz, whose delicate and ethereal character is nearly synonmyous with lager itself. Yet while craft brewers around the world have developed an obsession with punchy New World hops and the character of specific varieties, they often know relatively litle about the hops from this region that’s been growing them for more than a millennium.
In this episode, we sit down in Žatec—the home of Saaz—with Zdeněk Rosa, chairman of Bohemia Hop, the collective of all Bohemian hop growers. Here, Rosa digs into:
- the promising overall trajectory of Saaz growth in recent years, despite the disastrous harvest of 2022
- how agronomy and growing operations differ in Bohemia compared to the Pacific Northwest
- the unlikely specifics of how weather impacted the 2022 harvest
- the development of other varieties that offer similar character to Saaz but with better yield and sustainability
- newer, more expressive Czech aroma varieties such as Saaz Shine and Saaz Comfort, which offer enticing possibilities for lager and other kinds of beer
- leaning into a Czech take on cold IPA using more characterful Czech aroma hops
And more.
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