New optimism is brewing among Ukraine’s beer makers as the country’s consumption of suds rises along with the quality and demand for locally-sourced ingredients, particularly among some dedicated local players. But low quality and service remain a problem, especially in regard to hops, a critical ingredient and stabilizing agent that gives beer its distinctive taste.
Quality malt and barley are produced on large scales in Ukraine and widely used in most beer factories. Local water sources, too, are increasingly used, typically from municipal holdings but also from local wells — after rigorous filtering in both cases.
The use of local hops, however, remains low, as reflected in the collapse in production. After independence from the Soviet Union, in 1991, Ukraine produced over 3,500 tons of hops, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. By 2011, the last year for which statistics were available, that figure had dropped to 680 tons.
There has been progress, however, in terms of yields. In 2011 a total of 8,500 hectograms per hectare were harvested, compared to 5,070 hectograms per hectare in 1992.
Cooperation with some brewers is also helping improve quality. Lesya Chernyshova, head technologist at Carlsberg Ukraine, the country’s second-largest beer producer with a 28.7 percent market share, said the total volume of Ukrainian hops purchased by the company has increased since April from about 8 percent to close to 10 percent of its total demand for hops.
The Swiss-headquartered company strives to improve work with domestic producers, she said, and buys both bitter and aromatic varieties for the production of national beer brands.
In 2013, Carlsberg Ukraine bought a large lot of hops from Zhytomyr-based producer Hopshteiner Ukraine Ltd. A year earlier, in 2012, Carlsberg Ukraine signed a three-year contract with Lviv hops producer Shchedryi Urozhai.
The local hops are used by Carlsberg for the Zhigulevskoe brand beer, which is brewed according to regulations laid out during Soviet times that require only domestic raw materials, and for the production of the company’s other local beer varieties Lvivske, Slavutich and Arsenal.
Carlsberg is working closely with Ukraine’s hops growers to bring their products up to company standards, explained Chernyshova, who oversees operations at factories in Kyiv, Lviv and Zaporizhiya.
“Ukrainian hops are good quality. We are always improving our beers and flavors, and making sure we use the best quality products for our beers,” she told the Kyiv Post. “Hops are small things, but they have a big influence on the beer’s flavor.”
More than 80 percent of the raw materials Carlsberg uses, such as barley, hops and malt, are of domestic production, according to Aleksei Oliynichuk, the National Chief Brewer at Carlsberg Ukraine. The company hopes to increase these numbers, along with the products’ quality.
But that may be hard to do, says Igor Tovkach, executive director of Ukrpivo, an association of beer producers.
Contrary to Chernyshova, he says Ukrainian hops are being used less by the country’s largest breweries, due to their poor quality and condition. Moreover, local beer makers often need hop pellets or extract, but are mostly offered hops cones.
“Unfortunately, despite state subsidies, the quality of the raw material leaves much to be desired,” Tovkach said. “Eighty-five percent of domestic hops (produced) are disposed of as not suitable for use.”
At least a couple breweries do use some Ukrainian hops cones. Galina Kazimi, owner of Prokhodymets Bar-Pub in Kyiv’s Podil district, said she uses Ukrainian hops in her unfiltered light, wheat, ale and dark beers. She admits, however, that she prefers German and Czech hops, though, due to their better quality.
Alexandr Petruk, the Podil Brewery’s marketing, advertising and PR manager, said his employer buys hops from just one producer — West Hops.
“We use only Ukrainian hops for our beer production,” he said. “And just hop cones. Not hop extract or granules. We’ve cooperated with the (West Hops) factory for about 7-8 years. The quality suits us.”
Podil Brewery — Kyiv’s oldest, celebrating its 140th anniversary in 2012 — also uses only Ukrainian barley grown in Kyiv Oblast, Petruk said. “Our laboratory controls the quality of barley. Malt we produce ourselves in our own malt house,” he added.
But others see little need for local hops. Andriy Matsola, CEO of Persha Privatna Brovarnya, a brewery he describes as something between a large producer and a craft brewer (the firm just passed the 5 percent market share bench mark after being acquired by Russian-owned Oasis in 2010), says all local ingredients are used at his brewery, except hops.
“We use exclusively imported hops,” he told the Kyiv Post. “The reasons are simple: stable and guaranteed quality, and more reliable service.”
Even improving on quality won’t necessarily lead to big changes, at least in the short term. According to Ukrpivo’s Tovkach, Ukraine’s hops growers could not supply more than 15 percent of the country’s brewing needs if they wanted to. “The industry is dying,” he says bluntly.
Kyiv Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at [email protected], or on Twitter at @ChristopherJM
