By: CropLife International 

German beer is famous around the world. Most brewers in Germany still follow a 500-year old recipe that combines water, hops, malt and alt yeast.

Most German hop farms have been in families for many generations. Meet one of our food heroes- Georg Selmeier, a sixth-generation hop farmer. As his experience has taught him, hops are very vulnerable to pests and disease — “Every year we have a new challenge”.

And that’s where crop protection can help!

Florian Weihrauc is a plant scientist at the Hop Research Institute. He’s working to help farmers protect their hops from damage – he explains that knowing when to apply crop protection products is a crucial part of preventing disease.

“Take downy mildew. Because we know the disease, we developed a forecasting model that gives a control threshold that tells farmers when they need to spray fungicides, using as little as possible, but as much as needed to protect the crop.”

It’s research and tools from Florian and his colleagues that keep hops healthy and German beer flowing.

Cheers to our #FoodHeroes for working together to keep harvests healthy, so there’s more beer for everyone!

Read more about our hops and our German #FoodHeroes here