Modern Hop Growing Takes Root in the Lower Savinja Valley

The year 1876 is conventionally treated as the beginning of modern hop growing in Slovenia’s Lower Savinja Valley. An account published by the Association of Slovenian Geographers connects the milestone with the arrival of German Württemberg hop plants in Žalec, brought to a local landowner by the steward of the Novo Celje estate. The planting was followed by further organization and experimentation. A hop-growing association was established in Žalec in 1880, and trials in 1886 used a variety imported from England that later became known as Savinjski Golding. These developments helped establish the valley’s hop-growing industry. Hop cultivation elsewhere in the territory of present-day Slovenia had a much older history.