Page 118 - UNESCO_Zatec_2021_A4

These warehouses mostly accepted pre-dried hops with wooden handles were used for easier bale handling.
bought from the growing regions and villages. For transporting loose hops, there were wicker baskets,
lightweight wooden carriers, wooden shovels, and
In the storeroom, the hops were processed according to pitchforks. On the lower storeys of the warehouse, the
company traditions, or as requested by the growers. Bags hops were packed into export bales, which were branded
of hops were hauled to the upper floors of the warehouse with the company name.
using manual winch elevators, both internal and external,
for storage, after which they went through processes that Prior to export, the hops were treated in special chambers
took them gradually down through the building. using sulphur dioxide to preserve them for longer.
Sulphur dioxide was used to halt the development of
The warehouses used wooden floors because they microorganisms and to improve the shine and colour of
retained the least moisture. The wooden floors of the hop cones.
warehouses have been preserved in a large number
of buildings, for example, in No. 1950. The outer walls Unlike today, where the certification of the hops is done
were designed to insulate against heat. The windows right at the warehouse, in the past, there was a separate
were covered up, mostly with blue paper, to prevent building housing the certifiers. Transportation from
sun damage to the stored hops. The warehouse had to the warehouse to the certification hall was handled by
be large because one quintal of stored hops takes up a special group of people, who established their own guild.
an area of 1.8 m . Each bale accepted for storage was
2
sampled for testing. The warehouses were later equipped for pressing hops
with mechanical comb presses imported from Germany.
2. Description between for handling and checking their condition. Each The first modern hop packing and preserving house
These were run using a four-stroke cylinder, gas engines.
The bales of hops were stored in rows with lanes in
bale had long probes stuck in at various places. These
in Bohemia was founded in 1878 by J. & L. Kohn &
were used to check the temperature inside the bale. Twice
company, in Žatec on what is now Tyršova Street, No. 250
a day, an operator pulled them out and held them against
his cheek to check for an increase in temperature. The
motor to drive the presses. Only the warehouses of the
temperature increase is usually caused by high humidity (component part 02). H. Melzer installed the first electric
or the activity of microorganisms leftover after drying. Christl brothers were equipped with a steam engine. Even
118 If the bale was too warm, its sides had to be ripped to then, there were attempts at establishing refrigerated
increase ventilation. In some cases, the hops had to be storage areas in the hop packing plants.
removed to be redried.
th
The last decade of the 19 century and the period before
To transport bales of hops along floors, the warehouse the World War I changed the appearance of Žatec and its
had various specialised carts and hand trucks. Iron hooks inhabitants’ way of life, which to this day is well illustrated

Refined, sulphured, pressed and packaged hops are waiting for the certification, warehouse and packaging room of the Zuleger company,
Kovářská St., No.1232, Žatec, beginning of the 20 century
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