Hops for Brewing Beer

Hops are a flower which was introduced to brewing about 1000 years ago but have only been in common use for 200 years. The fact that hops are flowers tells us everything we need to know about handling them. Hops are delicate and impart the necessary bitterness required to balance the sweetness of the malt. They provide the spice flavor in beer and the aroma which prepares the taste buds via the nose. While color is the most obvious beer style characteristic; bitterness, flavor and aroma, provide the primary distinction between beer styles. There is a large selection of hop varieties to choose from. Most are available in whole, pellet and leaf forms. Pellets are preferred by most brewers because they are most predictable.

The bitterness, flavor and aroma of hops are released into the wort through boiling. The timing of additions of hops to the wort is called a hopping schedule. The amount of bitterness imparted to the wort in called utilization. There are four basic classifications of hop use; bittering, flavoring, finishing and dry hopping. These terms refer to how the selected hop variety is used.

Bittering hops are added to the boil for their bittering potential only.  They contribute very little hop flavor and aroma.  The bitterness utilized from the hops is a function of time and the total available bittering power in the hops.

Flavor and aroma hops are added to the wort during to final 15 to 5 minutes of boiling time.  This is done to season the wort without boiling off all of the hop flavor and aroma.  The shorter the time the greater the aroma.