Introduction

Description of Hops

Purchase and Storage

The Proper Use of Hops in Beer

  • Bitterness and Weight
  • Hop Use and Taste
  • Use in Styles
  • A Brief Table of Hop Variaties and Uses



    Introduction

    Hops are small green flowers, often called cones, which are used commonly as a flavor adjunct in beer. Sounds simple, huh? Well, it is not. Hops are probably the most debatable element in beer making. Quantity, flavor, benefits, and time of addition are all topics that have few universal standards. Everyone has his or her own opinion. This is mine.

    As a person learning about the use of hops it is very frustrating to always see, and I mean always, hop usage referred to in terms of IBU’s or HBU’s or BU something. Granted with this method so prevalent it is obvious that this method is very helpful for many people. The concepts are not hard to understand independently, but I find it hard to practically apply to the batches of beer that I make. I will attempt to give information on the use of hops in a variety of situations. My co-brewers and I have brewed for approximately six years, and in that time have just recently began to truly understand hops, and they are miraculous.

    Description of Hops

    Hops really are a small green flowers, often called cones, which are commonly used as a adjunct in beer. They are used in beer for many reasons. They have an excellent preservative quality when added to beer. They have a strong acid which, when added during the boil, adds the important bitter flavor expected in most beers. They are also the source of the floral flavor and aroma to beer.

    Hops can grow almost anywhere in the world, but are mainly grown in Germany, Belgium, Great Britain, and Washington State, USA. Each area has their own hop specialties, and certain beers have evolved around these specific hops.

    Hops closest biological relative is cannabis, which is really just a useless piece of trivia, but certain flavor similarities are noticeable through careful observation.

    The explanation of how hops contribute their specific flavor to beers is fairly simple. Hop flowers have glands at the base of their petals called lupulin glands. These glands produce lupulin oil, and this oil is the basis for all hop qualities. In this oil are alpha and beta acids, and what are commonly referred to as essential oils.

    The alpha and beta acids contribute to the bitterness of your beer. The higher the content of these acids, the higher the bitterness of your beer. The alpha acid is the most prevalent acid in the hop. Its quality is based on freshness of the hop. The alpha acids provides most of the bittering for your beer, and is the truly important acid in the hop. The level of alpha acid in the hop gives a general idea of how bitter the hop is. For Instance, a hop with an alpha level of 7.9% will contribute a great deal more bitterness that will a hop alpha of 3.7%. This percentage rating will be important in gauging the bitter hop character in your beer. The beta acid content is usually ignored by brewers, and the reasons for it are logical. Beta acids only becomes useful when it is oxidized, and the oxidation of hops ruins every other characteristic in hops. In oxidation you loose your alpha acids, and beta acids will never be as strong as the alpha acids. Also you have lost your volatile(easily vaporized) essential oils, and your hop is basically rancid. Write off beta acids as anything useful in beer. In beer, the bittering of the hops serves many purposes. It provides a balance against the sweetness of the malt, and it helps balance all the flavors of beer, but the bittering is in no way the same as the essential oils.

    Essential Oils. The name says it all. They are the essential part of the hop. These delicate oils provide our beer with hop flavor and aroma that are so important to our finished beverage. The essential oil is composed of numerous compounds, too numerous to mention, that add quality flavors to our beer. These oils are the most delicate part of the beer. Exposure to heat, oxygen, brutality, and time all cause the essential to disintegrate and decay. The flavor and aroma are added to the beer by many means. Flavoring hops are hops added specifically for the hop flavor, adding little or no bitterness . Although the flavoring addition of the hops adds some aroma, most brewers like to add hops specifically for the purpose of adding aroma. These hops are typically added at the end of the boil, and are called finishing hops.

    Purchase and Storage

    First find a quality provider. In my opinion the best place to get hops would be from a local home-brew supply store where the employees are very knowledgeable in the art of handcrafting beer. If you must buy via mail order, always find out the crop information and order the freshest possible. Some links to quality providers will be provided in the links section. Try to learn as much as you can about hops from your provider, but I know from experience that can be hard to do.

    The basic rules are:
    1. Fresher is better
    2. Cold is a necessity
    3. Expose your hops to as little oxygen as possible.


    Hops are an extremely delicate product, and great care should be taken with their storage. Keeping your hops in an airtight package is always a good idea. They should always be used as soon as possible.



    The Proper Use of Hops in Beer

    Bitterness and Weight

    The bitterness of hops is almost absolutely determined by the alpha acid levels in the hop. All crops of hops are tested to determine the alpha acid level, and that level is printed on each bag of hops as the alpha acid percentage. The higher the percentage the higher the bitterness, but more clarity is necessary.

    Hop alphas range from approximately 2% to 15%, though both are extremes. A hop with an alpha up to about 4.5% will be a fairly mild hop, as far as actual bitter intensity goes, and it will probably have a mild and pleasant flavor. A hop with an alpha from about 4.5% to 9.0% will definitely be more bitter, it will be fairly strong as far as bitter goes, with its flavor a little more potent. A hop with an alpha above 9.0% is a really bitter hop. The flavor of these is sometimes harsh, but can still be useful and appropriate in some beers. It is important to be careful using these hops, because things get really bitter very fast .

    Hop flavor are not necessarily less pleasant the higher the alpha goes, but it is definitely more intense. Every hop has its own distinct flavor, and the higher the alpha acid the more the bitterness becomes an integral part of the flavor.

    The weight of the hop is very important when hopping your beer. Since all hops weigh about the same, the bitterness and flavor of the hops you are adding depend a great deal on the amount in weight verses the alpha acid rating. For instance, if you use a hop with an alpha rating of 4.5% and used about three ounces for you bittering hops you would have a fairly bitter beer. (This also depends on the style as you’ll see later.) If you used one ounce of a 13% alpha hop your beer would be bitter, but not as much as you think. The 4.5% at three would probably be a little stronger. This is because although a very similar amount of alpha acids were released in the beer, less of the essential oils that make up the flavor of the hop were added because volume of hops used. Now the usefulness of different alphas is starting to get a little gray, so here is some clarification. Using a higher alpha hop one can create a more bitter beer with fewer hops. A bitter beer can also be made with lower alpha hops in higher volume. The flavors will be distinct between the use of both. Take this into mind when you begin experimenting with hops. Using higher alpha hops tends to make your bitterness more sharp and direct, while using lower alpha tends to make it more mild and flavorful. These are basic guidelines for the way hops work, but there are no rules and the hops may not always behave as I have predicted.

    Hop Use and Taste

    There are four main ways to use hops in beer. There are bittering hops, flavoring hops, finishing hops(aroma), and dry hopping. The way to use hops in these circumstances are individual to each process.

    Bittering a beer is the most important part of hopping your beer. One must think about weight versus alpha, and decide upon the bitterness quality they would like in their beer. To actually bitter the beer hops must be placed in the boiling wort for no less than 40 minutes. This is so alpha acids can be transformed into a water soluble form so that the beer can absorb the bitter qualities.

    Adding flavoring hops takes careful thought. The brewer must decide on a hop flavor and characteristic that will best suit the beer being brewed. There are sweet hops, floral hops, mild hops, and all sorts of hops. The amount of hops to add depends completely on taste and appropriate flavors to the style. You can add as little as none and as much as three ounces. This is all dependent on the brewer. Place the hops in the boil between the last fifteen and five minutes of the boil. This makes a sort of hop tea with the brew that adds the hop flavor, and a bit of aroma.

    The finishing hops are the hops that will give the aroma to your beer. This hops should have a pleasant nose, and also add a beneficial flavor to the beer. The typical amount used is very similar to flavoring hops, except they are almost always used to some degree. They may either be added at the very last moment of your boil and be allowed to sit in the brew kettle during cooling, or they may placed in suspension in the intake of your wort chiller as you siphon your beer out of the kettle.

    Dry hopping is the most difficult form of adding hops to the beer. It is typically not done by German or Belgian brewers; it is not a traditional way to hop the beer. It basically involves exposing the beer to hops after the beer has been brewed and is actually fermenting. Adding hops at this point adds very different flavors than typical hopping. Bitterness will definitely be added as will a strong hop flavor, but a dry hopped beer tastes very different than the conventional beer. It is a very fruity yet bitter taste. The amount of hops to use is very unclear in my opinion use quite a bit, two or three ounces, or you will be wasting your time. The best time to dry hop is in the secondary fermenter. This avoids all the hop aroma being lost during the vigorous primary fermentation. Make sure the proper amount is used, and that the hops are fully submerged in the beer. To dry hop well takes practice so do not be too discouraged if it does not turn out well the first time.

    Use in Styles

    The use of hops in different styles is very important. With different malt contents and flavors in beer, hops are often masked by the beer. It is necessary to take into account the type and heaviness of the beer when deciding on hopping. A heavy beer will need more hops to taste hoppy than will a light bodied beer. This is where the ideas of HBU’s and IBU’s come into play. They supposedly define hops so the brewer knows exactly how much hops to add to the beer with the use of a numerical system. I do not like these systems and am there for trying to give real amounts in typical beer styles. I prefer a strong hop character, and so these recommendations are more hop heavy, if you like lighter hops remove from one to two ounces, total, per style. These examples are all based on a hop alpha between 5% and 7%.

    White and Wheat beers: Between two and three ounces
    Ex. 1 ½ oz. Bittering
    ¾ oz. Flavoring
    ¾ oz. Finishing


    Amber ales: Between three and three and half
    Ex. 1 ½ oz. Bittering
    1 oz. Flavoring
    1 oz. Finishing


    Pilners: Between three and a half and four
    Ex. 2 ½ oz. Bittering
    1 oz. Finishing


    Pale ales:Between five and five and half
    Ex. 2 oz. Bittering
    1 ½ oz. Finishing
    1 ½ oz. Dry hopping


    Stouts :Between three and a half and four
    Ex. 1 ½ oz. Bittering
    1 oz. Flavoring
    1 oz. Finishing


    Barley Wines and Russian Imperial Stouts: Between five and seven
    Ex. 2 oz. Bittering
    2 oz. Flavoring
    1 ½ oz. Finishing










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