Hop drying in Continental Europe

The leading hop-producing countries at the start of the 20th century were Bohemia, Moravia, Bavaria, Flanders, England and Tthe USA. Worldwide 100,000ha (1 hectare = 2.47 acres) of hops were being grown¹: 60,000ha in Bohemia/Moravia (Czech and Slovak Republics) and Bavaria (Germany); 13,000ha in England 8,000ha in the USA (and rising fast). Other European countries which produced and traded dried hops included France (Alsace), Poland and Slovenia. Each European country had traditions of hop drying and kiln building with distinctive national characteristics, shaped by agricultural and social traditions and laws on land inheritance. Most Continental farming was a small-scale, family-based,