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.

Craft Malting Is Sprouting Rapidly

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.

Hops, like sleeping beauty, have finally awoken from a deep sleep!

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.

Behaviour of linalool during beer staling

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.