Why are hops important to beer?

Think of hops as the 'spice' of beer.

Originally they were used to add flavor and aroma, but then the English discovered that if you use a bunch of hops they will help act as a natural preservative and keep your beer from spoiling.

If you add hops at the beginning of the boil when brewing beer, it adds bitterness.

If you add hops at the end of the boiling cycle, it adds aroma.

Many brewers have all kinds of ingenious ways to continually add hops throughout the whole brewing cycle, or even use strange infusion devices.

Big, hoppy beers have really come into their own lately and are just flying out of the tanks at most brewpubs in the US.

Most of the hops used in brewing come from the Pacific Northwest US, and there are tons of different varieties, each with their own character and flavors.

The bitterness is measured in Alpha Acid units, which you will sometimes see marked on the label of many big IPAs and Imperial IPAs.

Interestingly enough, there is only one other plant in the same family as hops that has any use at all...cannibis. Hops do have some minor effects on the body that are similar to marijuana, but not enough to matter when you compare them to the effect of the alcohol that's in the beer.

Hope that helps.

Cheers!

Hops

Hops are one of the oldest ingredients in beer. Hops are important because they give the beer its somewhat bitter aromatic character. The hop plant is a climbing plant which is cultivated in many countries. Only the flower from the female plant is used. Hops also allow the beer to be kept longer.

The Brewing Process

What is beer? Simply, beer is the drink that one gets when malted barley is boiled with hops and water and fermented with yeast. In order to be able to brew beer, one needs the following ingredients in every case: water, barley, hops and yeast.

Barley

Malted barley is the most important raw material containing starch for making beer.

Barley must first be converted into malt before the brewer can use this raw material for making beer. Although barley is the most important type of grain for beer other grains are used during the preparation of beer, for example maize.

Brewing-water

Beer consists of approximately 90% water. This water must be of good quality because water is an important contributor to the taste. Our brewery sees to it that the spring water it uses is very highly purified.

Hops

Hops are one of the oldest ingredients in beer. Hops are important because they give the beer its somewhat bitter aromatic character. The hop plant is a climbing plant which is cultivated in many countries. Only the flower from the female plant is used. Hops also allow the beer to be kept longer.

Yeast

Yeast is a single (called micro) organism. This organism has the ability to turn sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide. We call this fermentation. It is an essential part of the preparation of beer.

Yeast has already been in use for a very long time but it was only in 1876 that the great French scientist Louis Pasteur could explain how fermentation worked. He also discovered that when you briefly heat beer to 80° C all sorts of bacteria and yeasts are killed off (so-called pasteurisation). Through this beer can be kept longer.

Malting

The barley is first cleaned. Grain contains starch. By soaking the grains of barley in water, carefully letting them germinate and drying them again afterwards, enzymes are produced naturally. These are substances which help to convert starch into sugars during the brewing process. This whole process of soaking, germination and drying we call malting.

The barley has now become malt and is stored in a silo for at least three months.

Brewing

The whole grains of malted barley are first roughly crushed in a mill. The crushed malt is tipped into a mash vessel and mixed with warm water (making the mash). This mixture is well stirred to produce a lovely smooth mash.

After this, the mash must be heated slowly. The enzymes have to resume their work i.e. turning the starch present into sugars and this can only take place at certain temperatures.

The hot mash is then pumped into a large vat in order to filter it. The vat has a double bottom. The top one is a filter upon which all the thicker components of the mash, like the husks, stay behind. The remainder (we call this the wort) filters through and can be run off by pipes into the boiler, where the wort is boiled.

The wort is now boiled in the so-called wort boiler. The hops are also added during this phase.

The wort then has to be filtered to remove the hop plant residues. After this the clear wort is cooled through a heat exchanger to approximately 8°C. Because there must be sufficient oxygen present in the wort for fermentation, the wort is injected with air. The oxygen serves as food for the yeast.

Fermentation and filtration

The cooled wort is now pumped to the fermentation tank. Here the yeast is added to the wort and is thoroughly mixed. There is a main fermentation and a secondary fermentation. During the main fermentation the fermentable sugars (malt sugar) are converted into alcohol and carbon dioxide. During fermentation heat is produced so that the temperature of the wort increases and the vessel has to be cooled. A correct temperature is very important for the taste and aroma of the beer.

When the main fermentation has finished, the beer is cooled to almost 0°C and is transported to the ageing cellars for the secondary fermentation. It is now called young beer. The majority of the yeast remains behind in the fermentation vessel. During the secondary fermentation the beer matures. The beer then contains the proper amount of carbon dioxide and has reached the desired alcohol level. When the brewer considers that the beer is ready for consumption, filtration begins via a so-called diatomite filter. All the substances which make the beer cloudy, like yeast, are removed here. The beer is now crystal clear and can be pumped to the bright beer tanks.

The beer can now be bottled, canned or kegged.

Hops has four different purposes in beer:

1. It contributes bitterness to counteract the malty sweetness of the beer.

2. It adds flavor.

3. It adds aroma.

4. Hops has natural preservative qualities.

The hops are the SOUL of every beer.

Try a Hop Devil, or a Victory Prima Pils, and you'll find out what a "hoppy" beer tastes like.

The bitter flavor of beer is given by them.

Hops are what give the beer its "flavor". That is, if you can stand the taste of beer. YUCK!

It adds the flaour, makes it bitter and is a steralising agent. The third reason was particularly important in the past

Hopps give a beer its flavor and aroma