James Squire Brewer Regan Pallandi demystifies one of beer’s essential ingredients.

 

Autumn is well and truly here, and a brewer’s thoughts turn to….. the hop harvest, of course! In the southern hemisphere, after a long hot summer, in the main hop growing regions the annual crop of hops is ripe and ready to be picked and sent to eagerly waiting brewers.

 

So what is the big deal you may wonder? What are hops? How are they utilised in the brewing process? Why do brewers get so excited about them? Read on, and all will be revealed…

 

Although hops make up only a tiny proportion of the ingredients in beer, without them beers and ales would lack the flavour and characteristics that beer drinkers expect. Before hops became a standard ingredient, beers were flavoured with all manner of herbs and spices, including hogwort, thistle and all manner of organic material! Thankfully, brewers recognised the positive characteristics of hops many years ago and made beer the drink we know and love.

 

Hops are grown at latitudes that provide long sunny days during the height of summer. In the northern hemisphere, the main hop regions are the UK (famous hop varieties are East Kent Goldings and Fuggles) Germany (Hallertau, Hersbrucker, Spalt) and the Czech Republic (the classic pilsener hop – Saaz). In the southern hemisphere New Zealand and Tasmania provide the bulk of the hops grown.

The hop plant is an amazing thing – it grows on a trellis up to about six metres high and at the height of the growth period, can grow up to 30 cm per day…! After picking, the hops are dried, then pelletized (sadly giving them the appearance of rabbit food but never mind) then sold to breweries around the world.

 

How then, are they used? Hops are primarily added to provide bitterness in beer, ranging from a delicately hopped wheat beer, to a robustly bittered pale ale or pilsener. But wait, there’s more…. Hops also contain hundreds of volatile flavour compounds and it is here that we begin to appreciate the huge range of characteristics they can add to beer. To use an analogy, if you mixed chicken and vegetables together in a wok and nothing else, you may recognize it as a stir fry, but there would be none of the flavours you expect from ginger, garlic, lemongrass that make a Thai dish. Similarly, addition of hops at different stages of the brewing process can add complexity of flavour and aroma that support the backbone of a beer, that is, the malty sweet flavours. Think of it as beer “seasoning” – and this is why craft brewers in particular get so worked up about all varieties of hops. Each has a distinct character, ranging from spicy to resiny/piney floral to herbaceous. In fact, one hop variety used in Knappstein Reserve Lager is called Nelson Sauvin, so reminiscent is it of a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

 

Hops are added to the brew kettle at the start of boil to extract bitterness, but the volatile aroma compound are lost – so additions are made much later in the boil to preserve the aromatics of which we are all so fond. Hops can be added even after fermentation has ended, a process called “dry hopping” which imparts yet a different aroma profile – this is common in English cask ales, as well as being used in the James Squire India Pale Ale. This process accentuates the “straight off the hop vine” aroma characteristics, which can be described as almost grassy, earthy, resiny or pine-like, but with a real hoppy freshness to it that cannot be achieved any other way.

 

So there you have it – a quick and abridged lesson on the ins and outs of our friend the hop - humulus lupulus.

 

 (* - a delightful unit of weight used only in the hop trade, it equals 50 kg, and will guarantee a win at trivia night…)

 

 

The hop flowers that were used in last year’s winter release James Squire Hop Thief Ale; a combination of Pride of Ringwood and Southern Hallertau. 

 

 

A rich, spicy curry is perfectly balanced by the earthly, floral aromas of a highly hopped beer like James Squire IPA.