Non – Alpha – Bitterness

For brewers, the most important compounds of hops are the alpha acids. During wort boiling the insoluble alpha-acids isomerise to soluble iso-alpha acids which are the main bittering compounds in beer. Depending on hop variety and hop product, there are several soluble unspecific resins other than the iso-alpha acids which contribute to beer bitterness. The content of “non alpha bitterness” can be shown by comparing the unspecific EBC 7.5 method with the specific HPLC method used for the determination of alpha acids (EBC 7.7). The ratios of these two methods are demonstrated in figure 1 and 2 for fresh aroma and bitter hops: ...

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