A Brewer’s Roundtable — The Pros Talk Shop About Hops
The Brewers:
John Harris — Full Sail Brewing Company
Peter Zien — AleSmith Brewing Company
Richard “Ricardo” Norgrove — Bear Republic Brewing Company
Mike Hoops — Minneapolis Town Hall Brewery
Mark Ruedrich — North Coast Brewing Company
Q
What do you aim for when brewing a hoppy or very hoppy beer?
A
Peter Zien: “The AleSmith way regarding hoppiness is to impart a lot of hop flavor and aroma, but not all that much in-your-face bitterness. This is accomplished by doing most of our hopping on the back-end of the process. We use a large amount of raw hops in the hop back and even more for dry-hopping in the majority of the styles that we brew at AleSmith.”
John Harris: “In reference to our pale ale (Full Sail Pale Ale), we strive to taste the character of all the ingredients. The character of the malt should be in concert with the hops. Each one standing out, but none overshadowing the other.”
Mike Hoops: “That really depends on the desired effect. Some beers are designed to be hop explosions, while others are more delicate. One of the real benefits in pub brewing is the constant rotation of beers. In that rotation, a brewer gets to highlight different aspects of beers made.”
Mark Ruedrich: (On Acme IPA) “We tried to formulate a good session beer — one that was assertively hoppy but wouldn’t burn your lips off.”
Q
What are the most important factors that come into play when brewing a very hoppy beer?
A
Peter Zien: “Water and proper pH levels certainly play an important part in creating the perception of a hoppy, dry beer. We add calcium sulfate and calcium chloride to filtered San Diego water in various amounts, depending on the style of beer that we’re brewing.”
Mike Hoops: “Water is very important in any beer and should never be overlooked. That being said, techniques and the brewer’s hop blending ability is very important. Hop growers are doing such a fine job today that we have many choices available to us as brewers. It is very important that we learn what these varieties have to offer, and to what extent. Try a “hop-tea” with hops that you don’t really know, it can really be a great learning tool. Once you know the hops, then experiment with different methods of use. We like first wort hopping, multiple additions, multiple combinations, dry hopping and we would certainly use a hop back if we had one.”
Richard Norgrove: “Dry hopping and late kettle additions become key to the aromatic presentation of the beer. If you go overboard, the drinker loses the malt and only remembers the hop aroma.”
Mark Ruedrich: “First, you need a beer that’s delicious. And, I‘m stuck to the idea that balance is very important.”
Q
What advice would you give homebrewers about brewing very hoppy beers?
A
Peter Zien: “My advice to the homebrewer making an IPA is that it’s not all about the hops. Look to build a substantial malt base to hold the high hopping rates. Also, keep the initial hop addition IBUs in check and look to really add hop flavor and hop aroma to your IPA. These are the ones that stand out in my mind when I think of what a world-class IPA should taste like.”
Mike Hoops: “Get to know your ingredients first and don’t always try to make the biggest or most bitter beer. Low alpha hops can offer fantastic character to beer, play with them.”
Richard Norgrove: “Work on balance. There are too many hop bombs out there. It’s easy to make a hop tea, but harder to balance the flavors.”
Mark Ruedrich: “I was a homebrewer, and from what I remember, homebrewers are an independent lot and don’t need much advice.”
Q
Do you think the current push towards hoppier and hoppier IPAs will keep going . . . or will “the bubble burst” and many or most of these hop monsters go extinct?
A
Peter Zien: “As far as hoppier and hoppier IPAs go, again I think that some sort of balance must be reached between malt and hop. Raising hop levels while not increasing grain bills can lead to some rather mediocre and one-dimensional IPAs, in my opinion.”
Mike Hoops: “I don’t like to think of this ‘desire for hops’ to be a fad. People truly like the flavor that hops offer and I think that will continue. As consumers are introduced to more flavors (from hops or other), they will continue to seek them. Also, a person’s palate will adapt to increasingly hoppy beers and ultimately that leads to a desire for even more hops.”
Richard Norgrove: “Someone will always push the envelope, but will it turn silly. Oh yeah, it is already getting silly. I have heard of some Southern California pubs actually placing hop pellets or flowers in pints to give that extra turbo boost. Some guys even use synthesized oil extracts to gain that edge. Still, I say go for it. Don’t ever stop pushing the envelope. I feel that homebrewing is the laboratory where true advancements of beer styles is coming from.”
Mark Ruedrich: “I don’t have a clear sense of how popular these are, but I think they may become self-limiting.”
Q
What hop varieties do you use in your beer and what is it about these varieties that you like?
A
Peter Zien: ”We use Tomahawk (or Columbus), Cascade, Amarillo, Warrior and Simcoe. These are all American varieties that create quite a pleasant hop character for American-style IPAs in virtually any combination. These hops are the gems of the United States hop varieties.”
John Harris: “This beer (Full Sail Pale Ale) features two newer varieties, Columbus and Centennial. In our pale we are striving to get a lot of hop flavor. We want to put the character of rubbing fresh hops into each glass. This is a very delicate operation. Using higher alpha hops has required some different approaches to kettle hopping the beer. Remember where there is heat there is isomerization, even if it is not boiling. We like these varieties because we get nice citrus fruit aromas. Grapefruit, lemon and orange.”
Richard Norgrove: “Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Cascade — all the Cs are great.”
Mark Ruedrich: “(In Acme IPA) we use Clusters as a bittering hop and Northern Brewer as a finishing hop, which is a little unusual. I think it is deliciously dry and has a great, citrusy, grapefruity character. One thing we don’t worry about that other breweries do is cohumulone content. We haven’t seen a correlation between cohumulone and harshness, so we’re not responding to this in our formulations.”
Q
What malts do you use in your hoppy beer?
A
Peter Zien: “Honey malt is incredible in hoppy beers. It imparts a light apricot-like flavor and aroma that plays in perfectly with the American hop varities.”
Mike Hoops: “We start with American pale, use various caramel malts, Munich and malted wheat. The Munich gives this beer a lot of its ‘backbone’.”
Mark Ruedrich: “We use just Vienna, CaraPils and Munich because I believe it’s nice not to have a ‘muddy’ malt profile.”
Q
Many hopheads report that, once they began enjoying hops, they wanted to drink increasingly hoppy beers. Do you think hops have an addictive or psychoactive component, such as the addiction some people get to spicy foods?
A
John Harris: “Hops have been considered a sedative for years. I do think people can fall in love with the bitterness. It can be a ‘hot food’-type rush.”
Mike Hoops: “I have seen some of our customers after they have not had any hops for a few days. One pint can change their whole being. I believe that is due to ‘hop-jonesing.’ I guess the alcohol also may play a factor.”
Richard Norgrove: “Oh yeah. I’m addicted, aren’t you?
