As of mid-December 2012, there were 2,751 breweries with active operating permits in the United States – more than any other time in American history, according to the Beer Institute, an industry research group.

The following charts show the average relative differences between lead conductance value “LCV”

We carried out tests in our pilot plant to check the influence of hop product and contact time for dry hopping. The beer we used was a moderate pale ale with 5,6 % alcohol and with a bitterness of 32 IBU. For dry hopping we added the variety Hallertau Tradition in the form of leaf hops and pellets from the same processing order (see table 1). The beer was stored at 4°C for 18 days. Sampling was done prior to dry hopping and then after 4 and 8 hours and then again after 1, 5, 7, 11, 13 and 18 days according to the numbers 1 to 10 in both diagrams. ...

As in previous years we would like to demonstrate how the contribution of hop oils to beer can vary from one crop year to another. We have chosen linalool as a representative hop aroma substance as it correlates well with the sensory impression of hoppy aroma in beer.

The Hopsteiner Guidelines 2012 will soon be published and be available at BRAU 2012 in Nuremberg. We are still working on some details of the beer production and will present the balance of World Alpha Acid Supply and Demand as soon as possible…

For many consumers, beer foam is an important visual attribute of beer. It is well known, that hop derived bitter components are important for a good foam quality, as measured by lacing and foam stability. Although tetrahydro-iso-alpha acids have been used widely in the industry to improve foam stability, some brewers have been looking for an alternative as tetrahydro-iso-alpha acids have a slight different bitterness profile compared to iso-alpha acids...

Estimates for the 2012 hop crop in Germany were finalized in the Hallertau on August 17th. We are pleased to attach a list comparing the crop results for 2011 with the estimates for 2012 for the world’s main growing areas.

When exposed to sunlight, i.e. if bottled in green or white glass, beer quickly develops an off-odour usually referred to as “sunstruck-flavour”. For about 50 years, 3-methyl-2-butenthiol (MBT) has been assumed to be the only cause of lightstruck-flavour, particularly due to its very low odour threshold. Several past studies suggest that the formation of thiol is a result of isohumulone coming into contact with light, riboflavin and cysteine. New studies show that it is not only MBT which causes sunstruck-flavour in beer. To assess the impact of hops and light on sunstruck-flavour, both hopped and unhopped beers were analysed before and after illumination. ...