Hops

Hop(s). (hap[s])

    A perennial climbing bine, also known by the Latin botanical name Humulus lupulus, a member of the Cannabinaceae family. The female plant yields flowers of soft-leaved pinlike cones (called strobile) measuring about an inch in length. Only the female ripened flower is used for flavoring beer. Because hops reproduce through cuttings, the male plants are not cultivated and are even routed out to prevent them from fertilizing the female plants, the cones of which would then become weighed-down with seeds. Seedless hops have a much higher bittering power than seeded ones. There are presently over one hundred varieties of hops cultivated around the world. The best known are: Brewer's Gold, Bullion, Cascade, Cluster, Comet, Eroica, Fuggles, Galena, Goldings, Hallertau, Nugget, Northern Brewer, Perle, Saaz, Styrian Goldings, Tettnang, Willamettes, and Wye Target. Hops are grown in Czechoslovakia, Bavaria (Germany), Kent (England), Tasmania (Australia), Willamette Valley (Oregon), and Yakima Valley (Washington).

    Apart from contributing bitterness, hops impart aroma and flavor, reduce the surface tension during the boiling stage, assist in forming a yeast head during ale fermentation, and inhibit the growth of bacteria in wort and beer. Hops are added at the beginning of the boiling stage (called flavoring, boiling, or bittering hops) to give the brew its bitter flavor, and at the end of the boil (called finishing or aromatic hops) to give it aroma and hop character. In commercial brewing, about 200-700 grams of hops are required for every hectoliter of wort. The addition of hops to beer dates from 7000-1000 BC; however, hops were used to flavor beer in pharaonic Egypt around 600 BC. They were cultivated in Germany as early as 300 AD and were used extensively in French and German monasteries in medieval times and gradually superseded other herbs and spices around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Pépin le Bref, ruler of the Franks, gave hop gardens (humlonaria) to the Abbaye de St. Denis, near Paris, in 768. Hop fields also were cultivated at the Abbaye de St. Germain des Prés in 800 and at the Abbaye de Corvey sur le Wesser in 822. In Flanders, Jean Sans Peur founded the Ordre du Houblon in 1409 to encourage the use of hops in beermaking. Prior to the use of hops, beer was flavored with herbs and spices such as juniper, coriander, romarin, cumin, nutmeg, oak leaves, lime blossoms, cloves, rosemary, gentian, guassia, chamomile, and others. See also: alpha acid; beta acid; hop oils; Humulus lupulus; kiln-dried hops; lupulin; preservative value; soft resins.