After 10 years of intensive observation, cone monitoring, extensive agronomic tests on various German hop-growing sites, as well as numerous brewing trials with different beer styles, the Society of Hop Research (Gesellschaft für Hopfenforschung e.V., GfH) together with the Plant Breeding Group of the Bavarian State Research Centre for Agriculture, has presented the breeding strain 2011/71/19 with the variety name TITAN (TTN) and applied for plant variety protection at the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO).
Now licences can be concluded with the GfH for the cultivation and marketing of this high alpha variety.
In cooperation with the Bavarian State Research Centre for Agriculture (LfL) at the Hüll Hop Research Centre, the GfH has been doing indispensable research and breeding work for German hop growers and the entire hop industry for decades. The license fees are used without restriction for research and breeding at the Hüll Hop Research Centre.
With the HERKULES variety, which has now been on the market for 16 years, the industry has a high-performance and robust high-alpha variety from the Hüll breeding programme at its disposal. However, the advancing climate change and the intensive efforts for environmentally friendly and efficient hop cultivation also call for a reorientation of hop production in the course of securing raw materials for the brewing industry. Breeding research is therefore geared towards offering resistant, healthy, N-efficient and, above all, high-yielding hop varieties according to the principle of “low input – high output” as future-proof alternatives alongside the established varieties and establishing them on the market.
With the new high alpha variety TITAN, the Hüll breeding team has succeeded in developing a new high-performance and healthy high-alpha variety that meets the requirements of sustainable agricultural production of beer raw materials. The agronomic advantages of TITAN are therefore designed in particular for yield and alpha acid stability despite climatic change, as well as for the reduced use of chemical pesticides (mildew tolerance) compared to the high-alpha varieties on the market. We have also integrated this contribution to more sustainability in hop cultivation into the TITAN variety logo.
Numerous smaller brewing trials as well as large-scale trials in cooperation with member breweries of the GfH have shown that TITAN, when used classically, brings a harmonious, high-quality bitterness to beer comparable to HERKULES.
As the holder of the variety rights, the GfH charges licence fees for Hüll cultivars:
Basic licence for members of the GfH: for the one-time acquisition of the licence rights for TITAN: € 5,000.
Quantity licence: of officially designated, dried raw hops of the licensed variety TITAN: 0.30 €/kg
The GfH promotes the use of the TITAN variety with various activities and publications in the international brewing industry and offers further brewing trials in cooperation with member breweries.
For their own promotion of the variety within the variety portfolio of the licensees, they receive a “digital variety case” containing all graphics, variety information and high-resolution photos of the variety. Thus, the agronomic advantages as well as the use of the variety can be communicated individually but still with standardised information.
The GfH points out that the cultivation and distribution of the TITAN variety is prohibited without a licence.
The propagation of root cuttings of the TITAN variety has been contracted to the GfH’s contract propagators. Regarding the delivery of root cuttings, we ask interested parties to contact the contract propagators directly for planting material.
For the time being, Fechser are released exclusively for cultivation in Germany.
“We are looking forward to a fruitful cooperation.”
