Beer Fundamentals – What are hops? – Allagash Brewing Company The four main ingredients in beer are malt, water, yeast, and hops. And though many people get excited about hoppy beers, many might not understand what exactly a hop is. Hops are the flowers, or cones, of a plant called Humulus lupulus, Hops help to keep beer fresher, longer; help beer retain its head of foam—a key component of a beer’s aroma and flavor; and, of course, add “hoppy” aroma, flavor, and bitterness. A view of Aroostook Hops, a farm up in Westfield, Maine. Every single beer on the market today contains hops. If they didn’t, they would be a “gruit” which is basically a beer that, instead of hops, uses witches-brew-sounding herbs like bog myrtle, yarrow, heather, or juniper.
Sidenote: bitterness can also come from fruits, herbs, and even vegetables added to the beer. For example: pith from orange zest, spruce tips, juniper, and more. Hops are divided into two very general varieties: bittering and aroma. Bittering hops will have higher alpha acids, making them more economical for bittering beer (a small amount goes a long way).
Aroma hops will tend to have more essential oils. It’s those highly volatile essential oils that contribute much of what people understand as “hoppiness.” We’re talking aromas like citrus, pine, mango, resin, melon, and more. By adding hops early in the brewing process, all of those essential oils volatize (boil away), either during the boil or during fermentation. We’ve written a couple blogs about more specific topics around hops like, and, Click the links to check those out. The use of hops varies greatly depending on the beer, and what the brewer is looking for. And it’s this variety of uses that makes hops such a delicious and versatile ingredient to brew with. : Beer Fundamentals – What are hops? – Allagash Brewing Company
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How does hops affect beer?
Benefits of hops – Hops offer such versatility to craft beer, with brewers able to dream up almost any flavors and bring them to life—invoking tropical fruits, fragrant flowers, herbal tones (think tea), freshly cut grass (really), and more. When you track the evolution of India Pale Ale (IPA), you see that American craft brewers especially have enjoyed pushing hops to their limits.
- Hops serve other purposes in beer, namely providing inherent preservative qualities.
- The acids within hop resin are naturally antimicrobial, helping ward off spoiling bacteria during fermentation.
- And this defender role carries through to the finished beer, where hops also curb the development of off flavors.
This isn’t new science either; hops have worked hard for centuries. By the latter 1700s, British brewers learned to crank up the hops when shipping beer to faraway destinations. Those ocean journeys were long, and hops extended beer’s life.
Do hops make beer more bitter?
What makes beer bitter? – Allagash Brewing Company Bitterness. It’s either one element of many in a well-rounded beer or the one thing that keeps you away. Where does it come from? Why is it even in beer? And is every craft beer bitter, for that matter? As you probably know, bitterness is pretty much all about hops.
Hops are the flowers, or cones, of a plant called humulus lupulus, Hops help to keep beer fresher, longer; help beer retain its head of foam—a key component of a beer’s aroma and flavor; and, of course, add “hoppy” aroma, flavor, and bitterness. Sidenote: bitterness can also come from fruits, herbs, and even vegetables added to the beer.
For example: pith from orange zest, spruce tips, juniper, and more. A bag of pelletized hops. The most prevalent form of hop you’ll find in today’s breweries. It was the hop’s preservative quality that first saw it added to beer way back in 822 C.E. Every single beer on the market today contains hops. If they didn’t, they would be a “gruit” which is basically a beer that, instead of hops, uses witches-brew-sounding herbs like bog myrtle, yarrow, heather, or juniper.
But do hops have to make beer bitter? Adding hops early in the brewing process contributes bitterness to beer. Adding hops later in the brewing process contributes more to the beer’s aroma. But you can still add hops early in the process and end up with a notably un-bitter beer. It’s all about the amount of hops, timing of hop additions, and which hops you’re adding.
Hops are divided into two very general varieties: bittering and aroma. Bittering hops will have higher alpha acids, making them more economical for bittering beer (a small amount goes a long way). Aroma hops will tend to have more essential oils. It’s those highly volatile essential oils that contribute much of what people understand as “hoppiness.” We’re talking aromas like citrus, pine, mango, resin, melon, and more.
By adding hops early in the brewing process, all of those essential oils volatize (boil away), either during the boil or during fermentation. That’s why adding them later in the brewing process tends to make a beer smell “hoppier.” Also, that volatility is the same reason why the aroma and flavor of heavily hopped beers don’t stand up as well to time.
Much of the hop-forward aromas and flavors will dissipate, leaving quite a different beer than the brewer intended. A view of Aroostook Hops, an organic hop farm up in Westfield, Maine. But here’s the wild part: you can add hops and not really have any detectable bitterness at all. In our Coolship beer, we age our hops for up to four years, which allows even those bittering alpha acids to dissipate.
- This leaves only the hop’s preservative quality (and a little bit of a stinky aroma that mercifully dissipates during brewing).
- But does craft beer have to be bitter? Absolutely not.
- We understand that IPAs and other hop-forward styles have certainly dominated the craft beer scene for years.
- But there are plenty of other styles of beer, both craft and not, that have tame and even basically nonexistent bitterness (even including some of the hugely aromatic “New England-Style” IPAs).
If you’re someone who doesn’t like bitterness, here are a list of different beer styles, and examples of widely available beer, that we recommend you try:
STYLE OF BEER – TASTING NOTES (EXAMPLE BRAND) Witbier – citrusy, spicy, hazy ( Allagash White ) Hefeweizen – banana, cloves, biscuits ( Weihenstephaner Hefeweissbier ) Octoberfest or Marzen – malty, amber ( Samuel Adams Octoberfest ) Bock – caramel-like, malty, strong ( Tr ö egs Troegenator ) Baltic Porter – dark, roasty ( Jack’s Abby Framinghammer ) Gose – tart, hint of salt, refreshing ( Anderson Valley Gose ) Saison – dry, fruity, balanced ( Saison Dupont ) Milk Stout – dark, creamy, roasty ( Left Hand Milk Stout )
: What makes beer bitter? – Allagash Brewing Company
Do hops make beer hazy?
What Makes Beer Hazy? – Allagash Brewing Company The haze days are upon us. At this point in time, hazy beers are widely sought by craft beer fans new and old. So we wanted to take some time to unpack what haze really is, and what its purpose in beer is. Is it intentional? A mistake? We’ll explain all that and more below.
In brewing terms, haze is called turbidity, a much less appetizing term. Haze in beer consists of “insoluble material.” That’s intentionally non-specific, because a beer can get its haze for a variety of reasons. So let’s look at a specific beer:, The haze in Allagash White comes mostly from proteins and polyphenols in the grain.
The proteins and phenols combine to form something called colloidal haze. Without diving completely down the rabbit hole, colloidal haze forms when two substances bond, resulting in molecules large enough (but not too large) to be suspended within the beer, causing turbidity. A second, but definitely less important contributor to haze is yeast. Two factors here. One concerns flocculation, a word that has nothing to do with the migration of birds. When a yeast is near the end of fermentation, it will want to bond with other yeast cells and either float to the top or bottom of the beer.
The higher the “flocculative tendency,” the more yeast will want to clump and drop out of solution, making for a clearer beer. Allagash White uses a mid-to-low flocculating yeast, so more yeast stays in solution. Thus, more haze. The rub: yeast is made up of relatively large particles that want to drop to the bottom of the vessel.
So you can’t just depend on yeast to keep your beer hazy. Adding to this yeast-derived haze is the second factor: we bottle, Bottle conditioning involves adding some extra yeast and sugar to the beer directly before packaging. This brings the beer up to its full carbonation inside the package, adds a bit more flavor, and scrubs the teensy amount of oxygen inside the bottle, helping the beer maintain its freshness longer.
In other styles of beer, like a New England IPA, a colloidal haze can be largely the result of dry hopping: a method of adding hops during fermentation. Polyphenols from the hops combine with protein in the beer and form a haze. Note: this only happens when very large quantities of hops are used in dry hopping, which is par for the course in plenty of craft beers out on the market today.
Another haze you may encounter is chill haze. This is actually another colloidal haze, but it only appears at certain temperatures. Chill haze usually develops around 32°F when proteins come out of solution. So you might start with a beer fresh from the tap that appears to have a nice little bit of haze, and end with a crystal clear beer. Haze, huh! Good God y’all, what is it good for? Definitely something. In the case of Allagash White, the haze is actually a part of the beer’s flavor. It’s also true to the beer’s style: Belgian-style witbiers are meant to be hazy in appearance. As far as reasons go, those two are the largest: appropriateness for style, and its involvement in the beer’s flavor and mouthfeel.
In the unfortunate event that a bottle of Allagash White sits undisturbed for several weeks, it can become almost completely clear. This is because all of those undissolved proteins and yeast molecules have fallen out of solution and are sitting in a pile at the bottom of the beer. If you were to drink that beer as it was, you’d find a noticeable lack of body and overall flavor.
That circumstance is why we always recommend rousing your yeast when drinking Allagash White. Rousing yeast is basically just flipping the unopened beer upside down and giving it a couple gentle swirls. That light jostling is enough to get all that delicious haze back in suspension and ready for drinking. To be clear, haze isn’t a “yes or no” question. It’s like sourness, where a beer can be anywhere from slightly tart to puckeringly sour. So too can a beer have a light haze or be about as opaque as orange juice. We control the allowable range of haze for Allagash White very tightly.
The tool used to measure haze is called a turbidity meter, and we use them throughout the brewing and packaging process. This includes our lab checking beer well after it’s out in the world: we look at bottles and kegs of Allagash White over time to make sure the haze has held up. Stable haze is really the key.
Making a beer hazy isn’t the hard part. Making a beer that has haze stability: meaning the haze sticks around for a long time, that’s the true art. This is all not to say that only hazy beers can have robust flavor. There are plenty of bright, clear beers that have impressively complex flavor profiles.
If we’re being precise, it’s the compounds that contribute to haze that have an effect on flavor and mouthfeel. In some ways, the haze is a side effect. So when should you brew a hazy beer, and when shouldn’t you? From a brewer’s perspective, it depends on the type of beer you’re aiming to brew. That’s actually a pretty universal point about beer.
A flaw in one beer can be desirable in another. It all depends on the style the brewer is trying to brew. Haze, you’ll find, is desirable in plenty of styles of beer:,, New England-Style IPAs,, lambics, and more. In a beer like a ? Not so much. You want that beer to be crystal clear.
Does more hops mean bitter?
Fact #2: Hoppy vs bitter beer is achieved through the timing of hops in the brew – In general, the more hops added early in the brewing process the greater potential for bitterness in the beer. Adding fewer hops or boiling for less time can reduce the bitterness by affecting how much of the alpha-acids (isohumulones) are extracted from the hops. When and how the hops are added affect the bitterness and flavor of the finished beer (Photo: cerdadebbie from Pixabay ) Boiling hops destroys many of the terpenes which create aromatic flavors in the beer. To keep those, some hops must be added later during the boil which reduces the amount of time the essential oils are exposed to heat. OR, these flavorful terpenes are added back to the brew through a dry-hopping process. Hops added early = Bitter Hops added later = Hoppy HOOHHOPS>COM
Can you taste hops in beer?
At first glance, the hop plant is pretty lame. It’s susceptible to pests and disease, it only pops out its valuable flowers once a year, and it doesn’t have many uses. But one of those uses is really, really important. Hops are basically here just for mankind’s beery satisfaction.
Once the cone-shaped flowers of the plant are harvested and dried in the fall, they play a huge role in the beer brewing process. Brewers love these little vine-grown buds for several reasons. First of all, they taste good. Hops impart a necessary bitterness to beer that might be overly sweet or out of balance without them.
What’s more, hops leave behind a whole lot of flavor in the form of citrusy, pine-like, herbal, and earthy aromatics. Hops also help maintain a beer’s foamy head and lend antibacterial qualities that help prevent spoilage. So yeah, hops rule. But not all hops are created equal.
- The amount of bitterness and type of aromas that hops deliver to beer are dependent on a number of factors, including the variety of hops grown (there are dozens!) and their growing conditions.
- As you get to know hops around the world, you’ll find trends amongst the hop varieties grown in the different major growing regions.
Let’s have a look! You’ll notice that I’ve included a few recommendations below for commercial beers that clearly represent a given hop’s flavor profile. As a rule, beers made with just one hop variety are tough to come by; just as chefs layer flavor with a number of different seasonings and aromatics, brewers typically use multiple hop varieties for depth in flavor.
What taste do hops give beer?
West Coast IPA – Brewed with a lot of hops in the boil, West Coast IPA’s are known for their high levels of bitterness. Dry-hopping adds flavors of grapefruit and orange. Brewers of West Coast IPA’s will often brew with hop varieties that add piney notes to their beers.
New varieties of hops are always being developed, so the kaleidoscope of flavors they can offer continues to grow and expand. However, as a rule, hops add bitter flavors to beer along with a whole spectrum of aromatic notes that can range from woody, spicy, and earthy to floral, citrus, and fruity. Hops are used in different parts of the brewing process to manage how you enjoy the balance of aroma in the beer you drink in breweries in Seattle.
Visit Lowercase Brewing to taste some of our beers, and we’ll be happy to point out the very hoppiest for you to enjoy! Follow our Beer Blog for more posts like this!
Why are IPA beers stronger?
IPAs have a fascinating history dating back to the days of British global dominance. Yet by the 1990s, they had fallen out of fashion, and it was almost impossible to find an IPA in a Britain whose bars were dominated by lagers, pilsners, bitters and ciders.
- Enter a new breed of craft brewers, and the IPA didn’t just get a new lease of life, it practically became the standard drink in the craft beer world.
- Here’s the story of IPAs, and where we are now.
- IPA stands for India pale ale.
- It supposedly started being brewed in the UK in the 1780s and became a popular beer among British soldiers and administrators serving in India, which was then under the control of the East India Company.
However, there’s much controversy about its history. The commonest story is that a brewer named Hodgson pioneered the drink specifically to export to India, because it was too hot to brew in the subcontinent, and because it matured en route, a journey of four to six months.
- This claim is disputed, though.
- A beer writer who goes by the name of Zythophile (“beer lover”) rebutted many of the common claims,
- The rebuttal was aimed specifically at a Smithsonian article, but the familiar story can be found in almost any history of IPA,
- Hodgson may have just got lucky, and happened to be selling “October beer” at around the time traders came a-looking for beer to take to India.
It survived the trip surprisingly well, and that enhanced its popularity. Claims that it completely replaced the previous favourite drink, porter, are demonstrably false, as there’s evidence porter was widely drunk in India in the 1800s – in much greater volumes than was IPA. IPA is a style of beer, which is popular enough these days to be called “regular” beer. It is a type of pale ale but is made with more hops, to give it a stronger flavour. There’s no standardised threshold at which a pale ale becomes an IPA, though. It’s all up to the brewer. Pale ale is where IPA gets two-thirds of its name from. It was pioneered in the 1600s and used coke-dried malts to produce a cleaner, lighter colour than normal ale, dried on smoky coal fires. Bitter and pale ale are essentially the same thing, But Bitters tend to be more malt forward and often opt for less fruity hops like Fuggles and Goldings, while Pale Ales promise a lighter malt base and prefer floral and fruity hops. There’s nothing inherently strong about an IPA compared to other beers. Some IPAs are stronger than the average regular beer, and some regular beers are stronger than the average IPA. You can buy 0% ABV IPA but there’s also 8.2% ABV IPA, If IPAs have got a name for being strong, it’s more down to the fact that their growth in popularity in the 2000s coincided with a greater appreciation for craft ales, which tend to be stronger than the lagers and bitters that were regularly drunk in pubs. Double IPA is India pale ale but with twice the amount of hops used in standard IPA blends. The result is, as you’d expect, a stronger, hoppier flavour. Double IPAs often, but not necessarily, come with more alcohol than the average IPA, but it probably wouldn’t be double the amount. You’ve tried double IPA (DIPA) – now it’s gone up a notch to triple IPA (TIPA). There’s even more hops in the mix, and they also tend to be a little stronger, with 13% ABV not unusual. TIPAs tend to be released as limited edition beers, so watch out. History, flavour and culture – what more could you expect from a drink? BrewDog started out with our timeless creation, Punk IPA, and we’ve since added to the range with the fruity Hazy Jane, zap-happy Mallow Laser Quest and our amplified beers that turn flavour and strength up to 11.
What beer hops are the healthiest?
What is the healthiest beer to drink? Enjoying a beer does have with it many health benefits. For example, light to moderate consumption of beers can prevent type-2 diabetes, osteoporosis, coronary heart disease, hypertension, dementia, and many types of cancer.
- In addition, beer contains antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins, including several essential nutrients easily digestible in beer form.
- Barley and are responsible for the majority of antioxidants found in beer.
- Approximately 80% of beer phenols are derived from malt and about 20% from hops.” These readily absorbable phenolic compounds in beer originate from barley and hops.
As a result, our bodies are thoroughly able to metabolize them. How do you know if a beer has these antioxidant (AO) compounds? A beer rich in AOs has more color, bitterness (hoppy flavor), more decadent flavors & aromas, and good foam (head) stability.
Most craft and artisanal beers contain a rich and diverse AO profile since more hops, grains, and yeast strains are used, with less filtration and minimal processing. Antioxidative activity is a significant aspect of beer quality, which means you can taste the AOs. The most abundant phenolic acids in beer are gallic acid, ferulic acid, and syringic acid.
Beer also has antioxidants that have free radical scavenging ability. So what is a free radical scavenger? According to the Cancer.gov website, a free radical scavenger is “A substance, such as an antioxidant, that helps protect cells from the damage caused by free radicals.
Free radicals are unstable molecules made during normal cell metabolism.” Catechin and ferulic acids from barley and malt have high free radical scavenging activity. Since both of these acids are antioxidants, the beers that seek and destroy free radicals the best are once again the dark beers. Craft and artisan breweries use premium and authentic ingredients and offer unique brews only at the microbrewery.
Many craft breweries blend traditional beers with regional ingredients, which create an authentic artisan beer and add different nutritional profiles. Some nutrition experts consider craft beer a more functional beverage since beer imparts medical benefits to the drinker.
- The healthiest are stouts and porters, and higher hoppy beers, such as DIPAs and Imperial IPAs, Trappist beers, and spontaneous fermented beers, such as Lambics and Gose.
- Trappist-style beer is probably the most famous of the Belgian beers.
- The Westvleteren XII is a Belgian Trappist quad ranked among the best beers in the world.
Trappist monks still control the brewing and commercialization of this beer, which originated in the 17th century in the abbey of La Trappe, in Normandy. To be called a Trappist beer, the beer must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist monastery or in the adjacent area, either by or under their direct supervision of monks.
Any profits should benefit either the monastic community or a charity. Abbey beers, like Leffe, are brewed in the styles of the Belgian Trappist monks but are not brewed within the walls of the monastery. As a result, all beers have significant amounts of silicon, which plays an essential role in bone mineral density, and promotes the synthesis and development of connective tissue.
This silicon is one of the main reasons quality beer is considered an anti-osteoporosis functional beverage. In addition, Trappist and Abbey beers contain extraordinary silicon concentrations due to longer bottle conditioning time and being unfiltered.
Traditional lambic sour beers are produced through spontaneous fermentation. This process does not use any starter culture since the environmental air naturally boosts the wort. The fermentation and maturation process occurs in oak/chestnut casks and lasts between one to three years. Traditional Belgian lambic beers have four phases, with each step imparting specific micro-organisms or microbiota.
As a result, lambics have more in common with wines than your classic beer. Recently, sour beers have become more available at craft breweries and bridge the gap from classic beers to wines. Gueuze, faro, fox lambic, Vieux Lambic, and fruity beers such as Framboise, druiven, and Kriek all have a lambic base.
- Gueuze, like with Champagne, both use a secondary fermentation period in the bottle.
- Lambics have healthy probiotics from the unique, spontaneous fermentation process, which benefits your digestive system.
- Also, these sour beers have different antioxidant compounds due to the other brewing techniques.
So lambics are a healthier option than many beers are they the most beneficial. Generally, of all the beer styles, stouts and porters have the highest antioxidant activity and concentration. However, in studies, beers containing higher levels of roasted malt had the most antioxidant content.
Stouts and porters feature dark roasted malts in the mash bill giving the beer a roasted chocolate and coffee aroma and flavor. Different kinds of stouts and porters include dry stouts, milk stouts, oatmeal stouts, imperial and Russian imperial stouts. Imperial and Russian Imperial Stouts are considered big beers, typically 8-12% alcohol, and include more malt and hops in the brewing process.
Higher alcohol beers also have the most antioxidant activity. This activity is because the increased alcohol makes the phenols more digestible, and more malt is needed to brew these big beers. In addition, porters and stouts significantly inhibit protein glycation, which plays a role in aging and diabetes.
Pales Ales originated in England with an amber color and bitter finish. They feature crisp, spicy, and herbal flavors and aromas from the English hops. IPAs or India Pale Ale is a traditional English-style pale ale with extra hops. This beer was brewed in colonialism times, as the extra hops allowed it to travel long distances without spoiling.
Numerous studies have shown that beer may counteract osteoporosis since the humulone in hops strongly inhibits bone resorption. Some of the world’s most hop-forward beers are Pale Ales and IPAs. Humulone is both an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Gose was first brewed in Goslar, Germany, over 1,000 years ago and was a spontaneous fermented.
- Gose faded out in the 1800s but is now enjoying a renaissance.
- Gose beer is brewed with a heavy wheat base with salt and coriander added along with lactobacillus to produce a sour or tart beer.
- Many craft breweries also add fruit to this beer before or after fermentation to give it a unique flavor twist.
: What is the healthiest beer to drink?