COMPARATIVE ESTIMATION OF THE QUALITY OF UKRAINIAN AND EUROPEAN HOP PELLETS

. In Ukraine, hops are basically processed into Type 90 pellets, that are practically indistinguishable in terms of biochemical indicators from hop cones. Pellets of hop are the single domestic source of hop products that can be serve as an alternative to imported pellets and extracts that used in the Ukraine brewing. Comprehensive studies of the evaluation of Type 90 hop pellets of aromatic and bitter varieties produced in Ukraine and European countries allowed establishing that they have different biochemical compositions and consequently, different brewing value. That have been identified differences in the absolute values of indicators such as the mass fraction of alpha acids, beta acids and their composition, xanthohumol, essential oil, the ratio of valuable hop compounds: beta acids to alpha acids and components of the essential oil. It has been determined that in hop pellets of aromatic varieties, the content of alpha acids changing from 3.3% in the Klone 18 variety to 5.9% in the Hallertauer Tradition variety. The content of beta acids, in the investigated pellets, ranges from 3.6% (Klone 18) to 6.7% in the Slavyanka variety. It is established that the hop pellets made from Ukrainian varieties Zagrava and Slavyanka have significantly higher content of beta acid 6.3% and 6.7%, respectively, compared to pellets of foreign varieties. There is a significant advantage in the resin fraction of beta acids over the fraction of alpha acids in the pellets of Slavyanka, Klone 18, Zhatetsky and Zagrava varieties, that they meaning retain a positive coefficient of aromaticity between the content of beta and alpha acids that ranges from 1.18 to 1.37. The content of alpha acids ranges from 8.7% in the Polisky variety to 14.1% in the Magnum variety in the hop pellets of bitter varieties. The content of beta acids in the same pellets ranges from 4.2% to 5.9%. It has been established that the composition of alpha and beta acids in the investigated pellets changes depending on the variety. It has been proven that Ukrainian-produced hop pellets correspond to their international counterparts in terms of their characteristics. Specifically, the biochemical and technological indicators of Klone 18 hop pellets correspond to the characteristics of pellets of the Czech variety Zhatetsky, pellets made from the bitter variety Alta correspond to the biochemical indicators of German Magnum pellets but pellets of varieties such as Slavyanka and Zagrava exceed the world analogies in terms of the composition and quality of bitter substances and essential oil. Based on the comparative biochemical characteristics of Type 90 hop pellets of Ukrainian and European production, the quality of Ukrainian hop products has been found to be at a global level. Certified domestic hop products, specifically Type 90 pellets, can be used do not only by Ukrainian brewers but also by other manufacturers to create new innovative and competitive products with various functional purposes.