Variations in Hop Aroma Depending on Crop Year

Each crop year we like to show the annual variability in the contribution of hop oils to beer flavour. The representative hop aroma substance chosen as a marker is linalool, which has been shown to correlate well with the sensory impression of a hoppy aroma in beer.

As shown in previous years, the alpha and linalool concentrations vary strongly from crop to crop. However, the the relative variability can be very different. A higher alpha concentration does not necessarily mean that the linalool concentration increases by a similar amount. Therefore we calculate for each variety the ratio of linalool (ppm) to alpha (% HPLC, EBC 7.7) to indicate how much aroma is dosed by adding the same amount of bitterness. This is of great significance in cases of late hop addition. ...

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