[ti:Spanish Company Aims High with Indoor Growing Plan for Beer Ingredient]
[al:As It Is]
[ar:VOA]
[dt:2023-04-20]
[by:www.voase.cn]
[00:00.00]In large buildings outside Madrid, Spain's capital, hop vines grow under special lights and close supervision.
[00:10.90]A small company believes growing the vines will be important to ensuring a supply of an ingredient in beer, the world's most popular alcoholic drink.
[00:23.26]Hops are traditionally grown in areas like Bavaria, Germany, the Czech Republic, or the northwestern United States.
[00:34.20]That is because the plants need a climate that has long summer days and mild temperatures.
[00:42.76]However, research shows environmental changes are driving down yields and quality of hops.
[00:50.98]It is a growing problem for the beer industry.
[00:54.96]Industry groups say U.S. production was down 12 percent in 2022, while German production decreased by 21 percent. 
[01:01.68]Czech yields fell by more than 40 percent because of unusually hot weather.
[01:13.25]Spain's Ekonoke is a kind of small business known as a start-up. 
[01:19.45]Ekonoke is growing hop vines indoors to solve the problem. 
[01:25.67]The company uses nearly 95 percent less water than traditional outdoor farming systems.
[01:33.85]"We're on a mission to save the world's beer," Ines Sagrario, co-founder of Ekonoke, told the Reuters news agency.
[01:44.07]The start-up's 11-member team of scientists experiments with different groupings of light and fertilizer and water mixtures.
[01:54.28]The goal is to increase production of substances such as alpha-acids and essential oils.
[02:03.64]These give hops the bitter and fruity smells that are enjoyed by beer lovers.
[02:10.81]A large number of sensors are attached to the vines to measure water and carbon dioxide levels.
[02:18.67]Special LED lights change colors in the growing area.
[02:24.17]"These hops have never seen any sunlight, only our own light show," said Javier Ramiro, a scientist with Ekonoke.
[02:34.96]To finance its research and growth plans, Ekonoke is working with the Hijos de Rivera group, makers of the popular Estrella Galicia beer.
[02:47.77]The growers said the next step is to increase production to three rooms of up to 400 plants each.
[02:56.56]Sagrario said that in the future, indoor growing areas could be set up near beer makers.
[03:04.55]These growing areas could reuse the carbon dioxide released during fermentation.
[03:11.54]The company is part of Anheuser-Busch InBev's (ABI) 100+ sustainability accelerator program.
[03:22.50]This program aims to give financing to companies that offer improvements in environmental and social problems.
[03:31.90]ABI's Willy Buholzer called the business "very promising." 
[03:37.37]But he said it remains to be seen if it can grow and sell hops that are able to compete with traditional producers.
[03:47.17]"You should not underestimate traditional (outdoor) hop growers. 
[03:52.33]They always come up with new ideas," he added.
[03:56.73]The most obvious difficulty indoor farming faces, he said, is its high energy cost.
[04:04.59]But Buholzer believes high energy prices will return to normal.
[04:09.98]He added that special varieties and more harvests could make indoor farming competitive in pricing.
[04:19.05]"You can't make beer without hops, and they don't want to produce less," Sagrario said.
[04:25.53]Ekonoke's plan, she added, is to set up indoor growing areas around the world.
[04:34.02]"This can be grown anywhere: Madrid, Sevastopol or Timbuktu."
[04:39.69]I'm John Russell.