Beer and the Pursuit of Hoppiness
The advantages of using hops for flavoring beer are many
August, 1999By Alan Moen
Beer as we know it today owes a lot to the discovery of a wild green herb that was once known mostly for its medicinal properties. The hop plant, cultivated in Europe since Roman times, produced cone-shaped flowers with a pungent smell and bitter flavor. Hop shoots were once eaten like fresh asparagus by the Romans, according to the historian Pliny, who gave it the name Humulus Lupulus for its wild or "wolf" like nature. Hops were also found to be a soporific - a sleep-inducing, calming drug. They were added to many curative potions by early physicians and monks, who made a great study of herbal lore that has been largely forgotten these days.
It is not known when hops were first added to grain-derived alcoholic beverages, but the Benedictine nun Hildegarde of Rupertsberg, near Bingen, Germany, mentions their use in beer as early as the 12th century. They became quite popular in the beers of the Netherlands in the years that followed, but their use in ales was forbidden in England (even made a capital offense by Henry VI) until made finally legal by an act of Parliament in 1554, just ten years before the birth of Shakespeare.
The advantages of using hops for flavoring beer are many. The bitterness in hops helps balance the malty sweetness of barley and other grains, as well as adding considerable complexity of aroma. However, the strong preservative nature of hop flowers (from the presence of tannins, which also help preserve grape wines) was no doubt even more important to early brewers, since there were few ways to keep beer fresh in the days before refrigeration.
Not everyone believes that hops became the brewer's choice over other spices for simply practical reasons, however. According to Stephen Buhner, author of Sacred & Herbal Beers, (available online from http://book-teria.com) hops became popular because they induced sleep and reduced sexual desire - quite the opposite effect of gruit, the herb mixture common in Medieval ales. "The historical record is clear that hops supplantation of other herbs was primarily a reflection of Protestant irritation about "drugs" and the Catholic Church, in concert with competing merchants trying to break a monopoly and so increase their profits." Buhner sees the famous Rheinheitsgebot laws of Bavaria in 1516, specifying that beer must be made of only barley malt, water, and hops (yeast being not then understood as an ingredient), as the "world's first drug laws".
But no matter: hops are the supreme spice of beer today, and a potent spice indeed. They are grown throughout the world in most of the major beer-producing nations. The United States and Germany dominate world production, together producing over half the annual supply. Other important regions include the U.K., the Czech Republic, Australia, and New Zealand.
Hop growing spread westward in the United States with the expansion of the republic, pursued by the specter of mildew and other diseases that devastated the wetter Eastern growing areas. Vines were strung from New York to the upper Midwest to California and finally to the Pacific Northwest, where towns such as Kent, Washington were founded to cultivate hops. The Yakima Valley of Washington now has no rival as the country's top-producing area. Nearly 75% of the nation's hops come from Yakima, followed by smaller amounts from the Willamette Valley in Oregon and the Snake River Valley in Idaho. Many important American hop varieties, including Cascade, Mt. Hood, and Chinook, were developed here. It is no accident that the beers of the Northwest have become known for their hoppiness: the region is truly hop heaven.
How Hops are Grown, Harvested, and Processed
Hop vines are a perennial plant. Sprouting from lateral roots called rhizomes, hop shoots burst out of the ground every year in the Spring. As they grow upward, farmers thin the vines (called bines) to three or four per clump, and train them upwards on poles or twine. They grow to a height of 18 to 22 feet, twisting clockwise (counterclockwise in New Zealand) and can grow a foot a day in mid-summer. Tiny flowers develop at the tips of the bines, maturing into green cones by Fall.
At harvest, usually in late August and September in North America, the hop bines are cut at top and bottom and thrown whole into trucks. Mechanical harvesters are also sometimes used to strip the cones or flowers from the hop bines. Back at the processing plant, the hops are carried through a series of belts and screens to separate cones from leaves and stems. Eventually the cones are conveyed to a room called the oast house, where they are dried by hot air at temperatures of up to 140 degrees F. to remove excess moisture, which can cause rapid spoilage. Finally the dried flowers, with ten percent moisture or less, are compressed into bales weighing about 200 pounds each.
Hops are stored cold to preserve the freshness of their aroma and to keep their bitterness, or alpha acids, from decreasing too rapidly. Warehouse after warehouse in the Yakima Valley is piled high with thousands of hop bales every year, kept refrigerated at near-freezing temperatures. Should the bales become warmer, spontaneous combustion can occur from the concentration of highly volatile oils in the hops. In spite of every precaution, disastrous fires still occur nearly every year.
Most of the hops used in brewing today are further processed into pellets - compressed by machine and vacuum-packed in airtight containers. Stored this way, they keep far longer than "raw" hops. They also take up far less space in a brewer and are much easier to manage. Some brewers, however, believe that the subtleties of hop aromas are lost in the pelletizing process, which does involve some slight oxidation of the hops. Deschutes Brewing Company, for example, uses only raw hops,even in its 600-barrel fermentation vessels.
Hops are also further processed in extracts - a dense, concentrated paste that can be used for hundreds of brews. These are mostly used by large industrial breweries where hops are added mostly to supply some marginal bitterness to their beers.
Anatomy of A Hop Cone
All the hops used in brewing come from female plants, which are kept isolated from any males by growers with a parent's vigilance. Seeds in the cones are not allowed to develop, since they interfere with both processing and brewing and are not needed to propagate future vines. The actual aroma and bitterness of hops comes from tiny glands at the base of each bracteole or petal which produce lupulin - a yellowish, sticky powder.
Hop Varieties and Beer
There are over 50 hop varieties used in beer. Some, like Czech Saaz or German Hallertau, are chosen for their delicate aroma. Others, notably British Northern Brewer or American Chinook, contribute significant bitterness.
Many "dual purpose" hops are chosen for both bitterness and aroma, such as Hersbrucker, Fuggles, or Centennial.
American hops include both types, but are most widely known for their bittering or high-alpha hops like Nugget and Columbus. Germany, the other large producer, is equally famous for its aromatic varieties, including Hallertau Mittelfrźh and Spalt. Since hops are a global business, alpha content has become a trade item, and new higher-alpha varieties continue to be developed worldwide.
Hop flavor or bitterness in beer can be hard to detect, especially at the low levels used in the typical light American or Australian lagers. Another factor is the relative maltiness of the beer: heavy-bodied lagers or ales like bocks or barley wines can overwhelm the taste of hops, even if considerable amounts are used. Dark malts or roasted barley such as that used in stouts have a grainy bitterness of their own.
Once the IBUs (International Bittering Units) approach 20 in an average beer of 4 to 5% alcohol by volume, however, some hop bitterness is usually evident. Many craft-brewed ales and lagers are produced in the 25-35 IBU range. For the true hopheads, however, "life begins at 40 (IBUs)" - the motto of the Leavenworth Brewery in Washington. Many Northwest breweries are known for their highly-hopped beers, such as Rogue Ales, Full Sail, Big Time, and Pike Brewing Company.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the India Pale Ale style. Originally developed as a highly-hopped, strong ale to weather the long sea voyage to supply British troops in 19th century India, "IPA" has become a much more American phenomenon these days, with many craft brews now available in the 60-80 IBU range. Great Northwest examples include BridgePort IPA (on the low end with "only" 55 IBUs), Pike East India Pale Ale, Diamond Knot IPA, Full Sail IPA, Steelhead Brewery's "Bombay Bomber" IPA, Portland Brewing's Woodstock IPA, Pyramid IPA, Leavenworth IPA, and the new Tapps Paradise IPA. Nearly all these brews take full advantage of the citrusy flavor of high-alpha Northwest hops like Chinook or Columbus, sometimes offset by the earthiness of British Goldings.
Midwestern "Hopheadquarters", Kalamazoo Brewing Company is well-known for prodigious use of the cone. Their version of IPA, Two Hearted Ale, is hopped with a single variety, Centennial, to around 80 i.bu. Because of the high gravity (around 7.25 abv) the brew has a remarkably balanced flavor. Other K-Zoo brews with big hop character are Third Coast Beer (Cascade and Northern Brewer) and the Bell's Pale Ale (Bullion and Tettnang).
Goose Island Beer Company of Chicago has an excellent IPA with a prominent hop character. It comes in bottles, kegs, nitro kegs and an occasional cask. The cask version was the hit of the Real Ale Festival last year.
Longmont,Colorado brewer Left Hand is best known for its hoppy Jackman Pale Ale. While not as intensely hopped as some of the Northwestern brews, the Jackman delivers a clean, well-hopped finish.
Another beer style that carries a definite hop signature is pilsner (and we're not talking about Miller Lite). Bohemian pilsner, epitomized by the classic Pilsner Urquell, is marked by the floral aroma and bitterness of Saaz hops. Good domestic examples of this style include Saxer Pilsner, Pyramid's SunFest, Maritime Pacific's Pilsner, Deschutes Paulina Pils, and Full Sail Pilsner. An over-the-hop version, Rogue's Imperial Pilsner, made its debut this year this summer at the Oregon Brewers Festival in Portland.
But hops provide more than mere bitterness or even aroma in beer. They are part of the balancing act of virtually all beer, including stronger beers like bocks and Belgian ales. They add crispness to Kšlsch and golden ales, and a dry finish to many British-style porters and stouts. The complexity of hops adds much to the enjoyment of nearly every beer style, whether it is overtly "hoppy" or not.
As usual, when it comes to beer (and beer ingredients), the Germans always seem to have a phrase that sums it all up: "Hopfen und Maltz, Gott erhalt's" - hops and malt, (may) God preserve them. Thankfully for beer drinkers everywhere, God has.
