The boutique beer business is big in the US as well as Australia, and I am happy to hear that I am not the only person who is finding too many of these beers just too overpoweringly hoppy.
While different hops are supposed to have different taste characteristics (other than simple "bitter"), it's good to read that there really is no point in making it too bitter:
Hear here.From a consumer’s standpoint, though, beers overloaded with hops are a pointless gimmick. That’s because we can’t even taste hops’ nuances above a certain point. Hoppiness is measured in IBUs (International Bitterness Units), which indicate the concentration of isomerized alpha acid—the compound that makes hops taste bitter. Most beer judges agree that even with an experienced palate, most human beings can’t detect any differences above 60 IBUs. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, one of the hoppiest beers of its time, clocks in at 37 IBUs. Some of today's India pale ales, like Lagunitas’ Hop Stoopid, measure around 100 IBUs. Russian River’s Pliny the Younger, one of the most sought-after beers in the world, has three times as many hops as the brewery’s standard IPA; the hops are added on eight separate occasions during the brewing process.Craft brewers’ obsession with hops has overshadowed so many other wonderful aspects of beer. So here’s my plea to my fellow craft beer enthusiasts: Give it a rest.
Hear here.
ReplyDeleteHaving a bet each way?
I agree though. Brewing used to include many more ingredients, and sometimes omit hops entirely. (Hops were a medieval innovation.) This would appear to quite congenial to the needs of small brewers, craft brewers, and home brewers, but the focus on beer flavouring has been almost entirely on hops. (It doesn't even make sense because when the yeast is working during fermentation, the more ingredients there are, the more likely yeast is to get all the nutrients it needs easily.)
That said I do love some hop flavours and aromas, (I'm sure you can learn to tell many apart), and I'd be interested in learning more about how to get them into my beer.
I wonder how hops got so predominant anyway. My theory is after mass-produced lager knocked the popular stouts and porters off the market, stronger hop flavourings became more popular (because it was possible to taste more hops). Now craft brewers tend to make pale beers in imitation of the mainstream brews of the 20th century - Fosters, VB, Miller, Budweiser. Naturally, one of the ingredients they start tinkering with is hoppiness, to make their beer seem more bad-arse than mainstream beers.
ReplyDeleteI thought "hear here", in relation to an American article, but which I wanted read by Australian boutique brewers, was a good pun.
ReplyDeleteI think Indian Ales are particularly overdone in the hops department.
I quite like wheat beers, which are very light on the hops.
They grown hops in Tasmania. When driving there on the holiday last year (or the year before?), I was happy to be able to say as we drove past this unusual looking crop - "I'm pretty sure that's hops" and I was right. (Although I forget how I confirmed it, now.)
It might have been a year ago that they had a very short run of a Little Creatures IPA. Intensely hopped - but it had the effect that, when you burped, it felt like you had a pine forest in your mouth. So the flavour had a way of, er, lingering. I didn't mind that one.
ReplyDeleteThey also grow hops in and near Bright where we holiday (Lexi's mum lives there).
We have some in our garden; there were no cones this year, but maybe next year we'll get some.
"there were no cones this year"
ReplyDeleteA phrase I would normally associate with another form of backyard (or indoor) horticulture. :)