The 2017 Hopsteiner Guidelines are almost ready and will soon be available on our homepage www.hopsteiner.com.

Hopping Recipe: The base beer (14°P. 6,0 Vol.-% alcohol) was identical for all four samples. The pale ales were dry hopped with pellets type 90 using a different variety for each one. Bravo™ (P90) was used for the base beer in the brewhouse, 70% at boil begin and 30% 20 min. before boil end.

On August 23rd, the estimate for the Hallertau was announced, meaning that crop 2017 estimates for all German hop growing areas have now been submitted.

The commercial value of hops and hop products is particularly influenced by the content of alpha-acids. the main source of the beer’s bitter taste. In 2015 the additional contribution of hard resins was clearly demonstrated (1). It was shown that at least 20% of the hop derived beer bitter intensity was attributed to hard resins and about 75% to iso-alpha-acids. The whole range of hard resin components is transferred into ethanol extract, therefore only this type of extract can be called “Total Resin Extract” (TRE). Read the complete article here!

Just when you thought craft brewers couldn’t add any more hops to their beer they do. Some craft brewers feel that dry hopping with 1 to 2 lbs of hops per barrel of beer is not enough and many are adding as much as 4 to 5 lbs if not more. To see what effect this has on the hop acid composition of beer and bitterness, a series of dry hopping experiments were conducted using Cascade hop pellets with assaying 5.7% alpha acids, 5.5% beta acids and 0.23% humulinones. A control beer with assaying 42 ppm iso-alpha acids was dry hopped with 1.0 lbs, 2.0 lbs, 3 lbs, 4 lbs, and 6 lbs of Cascade hop pellets for three days at 16 °C. As the below chart shows, most of the iso-alpha acids are lost with the first two pounds of hops with smaller amounts being lost with pounds 3 thru 6. Due to the high solubility of humulinones, concentrations reach 48 ppm and alpha acid concentrations reached just over 35 ppm with 6 pounds of dry hopping.

The survey of hop acreage in 2017 is completed.

Hopsteiner has recently expanded a new experimental variety from their breeding program in Yakima, Washington/USA. Seventy-five percent Cascade in origin, Experimental #09326 was bred in 2008 and is an aroma-type hop that matures mid-to-late season. Its bright, punchy aro-ma has been described as grapefruit and tropical fruit, but brew trials indicate this variety also adds a distinct berry note in ales, making it an exciting hop to watch! Experimental #09326 trials are still un-derway, so stay tuned for updates on this variety.

On Dec. 16, 2016, the US Department of Agriculture reported that US hop production for 2016 increased another 11 % from 2015, yielding nearly 87.1 million pounds of hops. Acreage increased 17 % in Oregon, 16 % in Idaho, and 16 % in Washington. Washington State produced 75 % of the hop crop in 2016, with Oregon producing about 14 % and Idaho 11 %.