Was focusing on hops your first choice, or did you consider other professions in your youth?
I wanted to be a veterinarian since I was little. My plan was clear. Go to a high school of agriculture, majoring in animal production, and continue on to veterinary medicine at the University of Brno. But then a neighbor’s cow stepped on his leg, he must have had a cast, and when I saw that, my goal changed direction. I was playing football at the time. I was completely terrified by the idea that I wouldn’t be able to go to the game much because of the injury. It scared me so much that I applied for plant production instead and started working on hops, just like my grandfather, father and now my son.
You are very slim. Do you still play football or what do you do to keep fit?
Even after my fifties, I played football for a while in Kryre A class. My football history is long, I started in Lipno u Loun, then I played in Žatec. Probably the best seasons for me were in Blšany near Podbořany, where they also offered me a professional contract. But I refused here, because I had an agricultural college and I wanted to devote myself to what I had studied. I mainly run today. Thanks to the fact that I have almost exactly 21 km to work, I sometimes run a half marathon twice.
As I mentioned in the introduction, you work at the Hop Institute in Žatec. Although it is probably a logical step, thanks to the focus in your family, I will ask anyway, how did you end up there?
After college, I joined JZD Blšany, which subsequently broke up into individual farms. After that I worked as a hop grower for five years, I farmed about 140 hectares of hops, which was enough. Well, in 1996 I got an offer to go to the hops institute in the research department to breed hops. At that time, Mr. Beránek from Pochválov, an engineer, was working there, and he was to retire in two years. The director of the institute was professor Fric, who supervised my thesis. So he knew me as a student and because of that he roped me in to learn from Mr. Beránek and continue his work of breeding hops.
Hop breeding is probably a scientific process “like any other”. It will probably be very complicated. But even so, could you try to explain to a layman what exactly you do?
I will try to make it very simple. Hops are a dioecious plant, as most people know. First, the female plant needs to be isolated before it blooms. Then we can cross her with a pre-selected male in the isolator. We then remove the seeds from the heads and sow them. When the plants grow, we select the best ones and find out their properties. The best of them are registered as a new variety after ten to fifteen years. Our task is to monitor the development of the plant, its yields, resistance to diseases and pests. We carry out brewing tests, where we find out how suitable each variety is for brewing beer.
When I asked you for some illustrative photos for our article, you probably wanted us all to envy you, because they were mainly shots from beer tastings. How do the tastings go and how many do you complete in a year?
First of all, I must say that the tasting is the end of our several years of work. But since we also cooperate with brewers, we do beer tastings for them as well. We will first brew beer from new varieties and then invite brewers from large and small breweries. Together with them, we then taste and evaluate the quality, aroma, character traits of the bred hop varieties. This is the first type of tastings. I also participate in homebrewers’ and microbreweries’ competitions, with which we cooperate by sending them bred varieties and they brew beer from them. At these, one might say, battles, I evaluate how different types of hops taste in lager and in top-fermented beers (IPA, APA, etc.). This gives me feedback on what the variety is suitable for and I can use it in lectures for large breweries.
IPA, APA. Of course I know what these abbreviations mean, I read them before our interview. Can you just briefly describe the main differences between these types of beers?
IPA is Indian Pale Ale, it is a top fermented beer. When beer was transported from England to India in the 1820s, it was done by throwing dry hops into the beer barrels. The buyers needed to preserve the beer with hops because they were going by ship across the equator down around the whole of Africa. So, in layman’s terms, they hopped it. And this gave rise to the Indian beer style IPA, i.e. hopped beer. APA is a similar method, only there are American varieties of hops, which give the beer more of a citrus or fruity flavor. In the IPA style we find more bitter, resinous types of hops. There are an awful lot of beer styles. They are mainly divided into bottom-fermented and top-fermented beers, and that’s where I’d stop today because it would be material for a book or library.
You talk about hops as an exceptional crop. What do you see as its uniqueness?
First of all, when a person comes into contact with it, for example as a part-time worker, it envelops them for life. I still hear various stories around me, now a lot of former students, about what their hop brigades were like. Secondly, it is a plant that belongs to the cannabis family. It has tremendous health benefits. And I can go on about its unusual features. For example, it will grow seven meters in six to eight weeks. It is the fastest growing plant in Europe. When the nights are warm, it can grow up to 25 centimeters per day.
How far back does the history of this exceptional plant go?
According to my information, because we can never know for sure, it goes back to some two thousand years BC. However, the first written mentions of hops date back to the eighth century AD. But beer could be brewed from hops much earlier. We estimate that hops have been cultivated for at least a thousand years. When “green gold” began to be used for brewing beer, people went to the hillsides where it grew for its plants. Then beer began to be brewed in monasteries, and much more plants were needed for its production. This is how the first hop farms began to emerge near the monasteries, and with it our original population. For example, Klatovská, Ústěk, Žatec. Klatovská was much larger than Žatec, but thanks to the fact that there was a small ice age around the seventeenth century, the winter in Šumava took its toll on this hop population and Žatec came to the fore.
Your hobby is researching wild hops. From which places and countries do you bring samples for your research?
In the Czech Republic, it is now mainly Jesenice. There are countless foreign places. If I have to be more specific, I would probably mention my work in Altai, which is said to be the most beautiful mountain range in the world. I have been to the Caucasus eight times. I have actually been on two expeditions in Canada and the USA. I have explored almost all of Evropa, the Balkans are still missing.
How difficult is it to import hop samples from foreign countries?
If you want to import hops from abroad, you have to make arrangements with the curators of the genetic resources of the hops of the country in question. It’s definitely not just like that. It happens that curators are not in every country, but I still need permission to collect the plant. Outside of Europe, a contract is needed for this, within the framework of the Nagoya Protocol, which contains a clause that if it is possible to grow a usable species from the imported sample, then the country of origin is entitled to a certain percentage of the profit or some other reward.
The question arises whether we can already taste the results from your imported blank samples. Are they already included in any of the regional beers?
Yes we can. Kazbek beer has Russian wild hops and Juno variety has wild hops from Canada.
Only one page is reserved for the article, so asking you about all the successes is probably not a good idea. But do you really have “Something” you’d like to mention?
Well, definitely your three children. I also have a few patents, I published several methodologies, and together with my colleagues we published the book Development and Tradition of Czech Hop Varieties, which was translated into English and Russian.
So far, we have only talked about hops as a plant that is grown for the production of beer. You mentioned that it has health benefits. Did you also research the pharmaceutical direction at your institute?
We had our own project where we investigated the substance Xanthohumol, which is contained in hops and has an anti-osteoporosis effect. Our project focused precisely on the effects against bone decalcification. Hops also contain desmethylxanthohumol. This in turn has strong anticarcinogenic effects. Unfortunately, there is only a very small amount of it. But as a medical pass that I have to go “on one” it could work.
It is widely reported that seventy percent of the Czech population suffers from sleep deprivation. Could you share a good recipe for quality sleep?
Hop tea. Take three heads of hops, pour hot water and of course drink it. It’s tried and tested and a lot of people have already thanked me for this recipe, so it must work. I will reveal a years-proven recipe. Broth made from hops and nettle reduces the level of sugar in the body, so it is excellent against diabetes. Another good property of green gold is that it works against moths. But I would probably prefer lavender there. If you smell the hops, maybe only beer enthusiasts will appreciate it.
Our conversation is coming to an end, and I always ask about upcoming plans and trips. Where are you going and what awaits you there?
In May, we fly to Japan, where we have cooperation with the Suntory brewery. Our cooperation has existed for ten years and together we breed hops similar to Žatec, which are resistant to drought. I guess we all notice climate changes and more drought, that’s why the Japanese focused on it. We are happy to help them in this. We are a little sorry that such research is not funded by Czech breweries, but that’s the way it is. Suntory lager is very similar to Žatec lager. The Japanese put up with personal relationships when working together, so we go there at least once every 5 years so that we can continue our research.
All that remains is for you to make a good impression on your Japanese colleagues again, so that we can still drink beer in ten years, if the drought trend continues. Thank you for an interesting interview!
