The Hop Plant Company Hop Plant Propagation Specialists 

Frequently Asked Questions  

Shipping 

 
UK Shipping 
 
Our hops are usually dispatched as bare root plants. These will usually be bundled into 25 plants and be boxed into either a cardboard box and sent by courier or into wooden apple boxes and sent on a pallet delivery service depending upon the quantity ordered. 
 
 
International Shipping 
 
We can send plants Internationally. There are a few restrictions. They are required to be free from soil, and have a phytosanitary certificate. With the time it takes to ship overseas, and the plants need to be soil free, we ship the plants while they are dormant (not actively growing) . This shipping takes place from November to the end of March. We are able to get the phytosanitary certificate done through our Plant Health and Seed Inspector. 
 

Supply Restrictions 

 
Plant Variety Rights 
Plant Variety Rights are an internationally recognised form of intellectual property used to protect unique plant varieties. The application of PVR is similar in principle to the intellectual property protection offered via copyright on books and music and to patents on a wide range of innovative products including biological material. The PVR system delivers protection and stimulates further innovation in plant breeding. By ensuring varieties awarded PVR are freely available to others for use in future breeding programmes. This access is known as the ‘breeder’s exemption’, and this process has significantly underpinned the major advances seen in plant breeding over the past 40 years. The PVR system allows plant breeders to collect royalties on the production and sale of seed of their protected varieties. 
 
 
Trademark and patents 
Some plant varieties may have trademark or patent protection in addition to plant variety rights. Where you see the registered trademark designation ® against a variety name, the variety owner has rights over the use of the name of the variety or any logo or other design associated with it. In Europe, a plant variety may not be patented but a trait or a novel breeding technique may be and where the breeder has been granted such a patent, use of the variety or technique is subject to the requirements of patent law as well as plant variety rights. 
 
 
Entitlements of the rights holder 
Plant variety rights entitle the holder to prevent anyone doing any of the following acts as respects the propagating material of the protected variety without authority: 
 
• Production or reproduction (multiplication) 
• Conditioning for the purpose of propagation 
• Offering for sale Selling or other marketing 
• Exporting Importing Stocking for any of the purposes mentioned above 
 
The holder of rights can authorise others to carry out these acts on whatever terms and conditions he/she wishes to impose, subject to the safeguard of compulsory licensing. Rights may also extend to harvested material obtained from the unauthorised use of propagating material, but only where the holder has not had reasonable opportunity to exercise his rights. Plant variety rights do not extend to any act done for private and non-commercial or experimental purposes or for the purpose of breeding another variety. 

Primary Use 

Beer wouldn't be beer without hops - hops provide the balance and are the signature in many styles. The bitterness contributed by hops balances the sweetness of the malt sugars and provides a refreshing finish. 
 
Aroma 
Aroma hops are also referred to as finishing hops. By adding different varieties of hops at different times during the boil, a more complex hop profile can be established that gives the beer a balance of hop bitterness, taste and aroma. Aroma hops are added towards the end of the boil and are typically boiled for 15 minutes or less. 
 
 
Bittering 
Bittering hops are high in alpha acids, at about 10 percent by weight. Bittering hops, also known as kettle hops, are added at the start of the boil and boiled for about an hour. 
 
 
Dual Purpose 
Are used at either stage of production 

Male and Female Hops 

Hops (Humulus lupulus) are used in brewing for their aroma and bittering properties. The female flowers or strobuli, are commonly referred to as cones, and contain the acids and essential oils that impart aroma and bitterness respectively. 
 
In nearly all cases, hops are dioecious, meaning individual plants are either male or female and produce only male or female flowers. Individual female cones contain 20-60 individual flowers , while male flowers are multi-branched panicles with many tiny flowers. Male plants produce pollen that can be carried by the wind to female cones; the resulting fertilized female flowers produce seed. 

Where to buy  

Commercial Growers Ordering over 50 plants?  

Please fill out our enquiry sheet with variety and quantity information for volume discounts 

Retailers Ordering less than 50 plants?  

Buy from one of our approved retailers for companys who supply only hop plant propagated by The Hop Plant Company 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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