SAGARLUP: innovating from tradition

SAGARLUP is a new product resulting from the collaboration between the Zabala cider house, with more than 200 years of experience in cider making, in Aduna (Gipuzkoa), and Dr. Iñaki Santos of the SGIker RMN Service, Gipuzkoa Unit, of the University of the Basque Country, UPV/EHU.

SAGARLUP is not simply a cider with added hops, but a fermented beverage with native apple juice and wild hops. Just as vermouth is not simply "wine with herbs," SAGARLUP is not "cider with hops."

SAGARLUP is a category with its own name, a word that evokes its Basque roots (SAGARra, "apple" in Basque) and its distinctive ingredient (LUPulua, "hop").

The hops grow in the 1,500 m² pilot orchard on the Zabala family farm, and the apples grow in the 8,000 apple trees they have around the cider house. Therefore, it is made with zero-mile raw materials.

In the SGIker NMR Service, a chemical characterization of two varieties of wild hops was carried out. Bitter acids (humulone, lupulone), phenolic acids (xanthohumol), flavonoids, and terpenes were analyzed. The fermentation and subsequent ripening process of SAGARLUP was also monitored.