Drying of hop.

摘要

In the Czech Republic, belt kilns are predominantly used for hop drying. In other parts of the world, other types of hop kilns, such as box kilns, are also frequently used. A comparison appears desirable between the efficiency and quality of the technological processes in the individual kiln types. The present work aimed to determine the hop drying parameters ( alpha bitter acids [humulon], beta bitter acids [lupulon], water content and hop storage index) of the belt hop kiln, and their optimization. Results showed that the abolishment of the conditioning part of the belt kin would not result in the deterioration of the hop qualitative parameters. At the same time, the reduction of energy and repair costs could be logically presumed. Moreover, the drying process could speed up and result to further cost reduction.