As an offshoot of the current sustained wave of craft beer, a trend among breweries towards offering an increasingly regionally-oriented palette of products has emerged in recent years – this also includes raw materials like malt. Demand is rising for beer made from malt produced in close proximity to breweries, and thus the craft beer wave, which has engulfed the beer market, is being followed closely by another: the craft malting wave.

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 %.

Low IBU beers (20 ppm of isoalpha acids or less) that are heavily dry hopped, with 1 lb of hops per barrel (0,381 kg/hl) or more, can experience signiἀcant changes in hop acid composition.

High IBU beers (40 ppm of isoalpha acids or more) that are heavily dry hopped, with 1 lb of hops per barrel (0,381 kg/hl) or more, can experience significant changes in hop acid composition. When dry hopping high IBU beers, the leaf material of hops or hop pellets absorb and remove significant amounts of isoalpha acids and add significant amounts of low bitter humulinones and very low bitter alpha acids. ...

Craft beer buffs consider it the Oscar awards ceremony of the Italian brewery movement. “Beer of the year”, the contest now at its twelfth edition, will be the barometer that shows the sector’s ferment, highlighting emerging realities, professionalism, passion and innovations.

As in previous years, we performed a tasting of Pale Ales at the BrauBeviale 2016.

Of the three raw materials stipulated for brewing beer under the German Reinheitsgebot, hops are the least significant in terms of quantity but perhaps the most important with regard to their sensory impact. And although they are only present on a scale of one part per thousand in beer, the influence of hops is strong in the brewing world – and similarly, the brewing world substantially impacts hops as well.

Hop aromatic beers have been around forever and a day. Linalool is frequently referred to as an indicator substance for sensory impression [1-4]. The rediscovery of dry hopping resulted in many hoppy, palateful beers coming on the market. But what about stability of hop aroma? Opinions voiced in the literature differ. This contribution analyses the behaviour of linalool in different beers during ageing at 20 and 30 °C based on many sample withdrawals. A sensory assessment was not part of the analyses to start with.

As already shown before in previous years, we would like to demonstrate how the contribution of hop oils to beer can vary from one crop year to another.

From October 24 to 26 2016 RMI Analytics conducted a malting barley crop tour in South Australia, taking in the growing regions of the Clare and Barossa Valley’s in the Mid-North region.

The 2016 Hopsteiner Guidelines are ready and will be available at BrauBeviale 2016 in Nuremberg.