A Brewer's Guide to Using Hops
Hops do three jobs in a beer. They balance the sweetness of the malt with bitterness, they carry a lot of the flavour and nearly all of the aroma, and they help the beer keep. The interesting part is that which of those three you get depends almost entirely on when you put them in, so the same hop can give you two completely different beers.
How hops work in the boil
They are the flowers of the hop plant, Humulus lupulus, and they come as whole cones or as pellets. Pellets are what most home brewers use because they store better and they are easier to measure.
Timing is the whole game.
- Bittering hops. In at the start of the boil. The long boil converts the alpha acids, which is what gives you bitterness. Almost none of the aroma survives that, so do not waste an expensive aroma hop here.
- Flavour hops. In with 15 to 30 minutes left. Long enough to get flavour out, short enough that you are not just adding more bitterness.
- Aroma hops. Right at the end of the boil, or into the fermenter afterwards. This is where the smell comes from and it barely touches the bitterness at all.
The six we keep
- Nelson Sauvin. Fruity, almost like white wine. Good for putting a bit of a twist through an IPA or a pale ale.
- Citra. Heavy citrus. Grapefruit, lime and tropical fruit, and it does not do subtle.
- Chinook. Pine and spice, fairly assertive. Suits American style ales.
- Fuggles. Earthy and woody, and the traditional pick for English ales.
- Kent Golding. Gentle and floral. If you are making a classic English bitter, this is the one.
- Centennial. Sits between floral and citrus, which is why people call it a super Cascade.
Eight things worth trying
- Dry hopping. Hops into the fermenter after the boil. All aroma, no extra bitterness, and it is the single biggest jump most people notice in their beer.
- Hop tea. Steep a small amount in hot water and taste it. It is the cheapest way to find out what a hop actually does before you commit a whole batch to it.
- First wort hopping. Hops in the kettle while you transfer the wort, before the boil starts. Gives a smoother bitterness than the same hop added at the start of the boil.
- Layering. Additions at three or four points instead of one. More work, and it is how you get a beer with depth to the hop character rather than a flat wall of it.
- Blending. Two or three varieties together. Citra and Centennial is a reliable place to start if you have not blended before.
- Watch the alpha acids. The percentage on the packet tells you how much bitterness you are going to get, and it varies between harvests even for the same variety. Substituting one hop for another gram for gram without checking is how a beer ends up undrinkably bitter.
- Storage. Cold, dark and sealed. Hops go stale fast in a warm cupboard and stale hops smell like old cheese, which is exactly as good in a beer as it sounds.
- Preservation. The same compounds that make hops bitter also help the beer keep, so a heavily hopped beer will generally hold up longer than a lightly hopped one.
Shop related products
- Coopers Light Malt Extract 1.5kg. A clean base that lets the hops do the talking.
- Coopers Amber Malt Extract 1.5kg. More malt character to balance a big hop bill.
- US-05 Safale Ale Yeast 11.5g. Neutral, so it stays out of the way of the hops.
- Thomas Coopers Bootmaker Pale Ale 1.7kg. A good kit to practise dry hopping on.
Did you know we also stock Nelson Sauvin, Citra, Chinook, Fuggles, Kent Golding and Centennial hop pellets in store, along with Hersbrucker. They are not on the website, so give us a ring on (08) 8536 4333 to check what is on the shelf before you come in.
There is more in the homebrew range and the beer supplies.
Stuck on something?
Brewhilder is our homebrew adviser and it will talk you through a hop schedule or a recipe any time of the day. Have a go here.
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I will take a beer that smells like something over a beer that is technically correct, every time.
Cheers,
Candeece
