Hop

Hops from Poperinge flavour Belgium’s famous beers, and in spring young hop shoots are served as one of the priciest delicacies around.

The hop is a dioecious perennial climber of the hemp family, whose rough stems twine clockwise around supports and reach 6–8 m in a single season. Female plants produce cone-like inflorescences whose glands contain lupulin – resins and oils that give beer its bitterness and aroma and act as a preservative. Only female plants are grown in hop gardens, trained up wires on tall trellises. In the wild it grows in damp thickets and riparian forest.

Significance in the country

The area around Poperinge in West Flanders supplies most of Belgium’s hops; the town has a hop museum and every three years holds a hop festival with a grand parade. Belgian beer culture was added to UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage in 2016, and hopscheuten – young hop shoots – are served in spring with a poached egg and mousseline sauce.

Where it grows

Hop gardens are concentrated around Poperinge in West Flanders; smaller plantings are found in the former hop-growing district around Asse and Aalst in Flemish Brabant and East Flanders.

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