BREWING VALUE AND CLASSIFICATION OF HOP BREEDING MATERIAL

The analyses of hop bitter acids and hop oils were made in more than o ne hundred hop seedlings from breeding nursery of the Hop Research Ins titute. Hop resins and hop essential oils are the most important hop c omponents from beer production aspect. In the recent years internation al hop market has had a tendency to distinguish only two basic varieta l groups - aroma hops and high-alpha hops. The attempts to repress fin e aroma hop varieties as an independent group are evident. The results of analyses show that collection of tested hybrids represents a wide spectrum of various genotypes from aroma to high-alpha hops. The conte nt of alpha-bitter acids in analysed hybrids is in the range of 2.6 to 12.8% w/w. Humulene content in hop oils is predominantly in the range of 10 to 40% rel., have normal distribution with the mean value 25%. On the other hand, farnesene proportion has distinctly bimodal distrib ution. It proves that its content is either significant (> 10%) or neg ligible (< 2%). It can be stated that the collection of tested hybrids is a suitable basis for subsequent selection and breeding of all econ omically significant types of hops. The results of analyses show that collection of tested hops represents a wide spectrum of various genoty pes from aroma to high-alpha hops. It is the suitable basis for subseq uent selection and breeding of all economically significant types of h ops.