Millennium- A New Hop Variety

摘要

The Millennium hop variety was developed for the purpose of improving brewing values and agronomic characteristics of existing high-α-acids varieties grown in the Pacific Northwest United States. Millennium originated from a cross made in 1989 on a tetraploid Nugget hop variety and was released to the hop-growing industry as a high-α-triploid variety in 2000. When compared with Nugget, Millennium has a higher percentage of α-acids in the cone and a higher cone production per acre. Compared with the Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus varieties, Millennium has better storage stability, a lesser propensity for self heating (combustion), and better powdery mildew and downy mildew disease resistance. Pilot-brewing trials and sensory evaluations demonstrated that Millennium hopped beers were normal in all aspects and the hop aroma was similar with that of Nugget. Commercial breweries have qualified Millennium as an approved variety in the brewing of a broad range of beers. Millennium is an excellent, cost-effective replacement for the hop variety Nugget and provides an alternative to the hop varieties collectively known as Columbus/Tomahawk/Zeus. Millennium is grown in the states of Washington and Oregon and has the fourth largest acreage of the high-α-acid varieties.