First cannabis, now beer: LEDs helping to grow hops

Added on 18 April 2023

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First cannabis, now beer: LEDs helping to grow hops

A Spanish vertical farm is raising vines completely indoors. No sun involved, just spectrally tuned lighting.

It’s well known that LED lighting plays a prominent role in helping to grow cannabis. Now, it’s starting to shine on an even more popular recreational substance: beer. Or, to be precise, the hops that go into it.

Reuters recently featured a story about a Spanish vertical farm near Madrid that is raising hop vines indoors using spectrally tuned LEDs as part of the nourishment that also includes the water-based mineral systems of hydroponics.

Startup grower Ekonoke has outfitted the test facility with sensors to monitor lighting, carbon dioxide levels, temperature, humidity, and photosynthesis. On its website the company also claims to be using machine learning and internet connections to optimize the the conditions. Ekonoke also says the environment is pesticide free and uses much less water than does outdoor growing.

It’s a notable exercise in controlled environment agriculture, given that hops tend to grow well only in certain temperate climates. Much of the world’s beer hops come from the U.S. states of Washington and Oregon, the Hallertau area of Germany, and Žatec in the Czech Republic. Over the last year, production in all those regions fell as climatic conditions deviated to hotter and drier. There is a perception that hops production could be under threat from climate change, which could hamper the ability of beer makers to use the flower to craft bitterness and flavors into their brew.