influence of storage technology on THE quality of fresh hops

To prevent interrupting the process of drying or picking due to the lack or surplus of hops coming out of the picking line, in most cases there is a storage container placed to function as a capacity device. The disadvantage is the hops layering inside the container, resulting in temperature and humidity rise due to increased cones respiration and insufficient airing, i.e. mustiness. Owing to respiration, cones lose important substances leading to a drop in their quality, or more precisely to a drop in the quality of the final product. The objective of this research was to monitor and verify different technologies in the storage of picked hops, comparing them with a control variant. In the course of our measurements we took samples of hops which were put to laboratory analyses determining toluene conductometric value, content of α -and β- bitter acids by spectrophotometric method, and the hop storage index (HSI).