Hop University – Day 3 How to choose hops for homebrew

It is the final day and you are close to graduating. This last bit is geared exclusively towards homebrewers and how to utilize the Hop University knowledge. For those of you who are not homebrewers, I do have a reference below from a Beer Advocate thread giving you examples of commercial brews with specific hop profiles. If you want to experience specific hop flavors, this list will be a good start. The Sam Adams Deconstructed sampler was a great way to try different hops profiles, but I think it is very close to being sold out in the area.


You have a good idea of what you want your hop profile to be, now what? Well now you have to do some leg work and pick out the hops which will fit your intended profile. Luckily, I’ve done most of the leg work for you. You have two choices for the resource you can use to help define the hops you will use. If you are doing a traditional style, you can find the style guidelines in the BJCP guide and it will usually tell you what hops to use. You can also find websites or books that will explicitly tell you what hops are traditional for a style. That is the easy way out.

The other avenue you may choose is to make up your own hop profile regardless of what tradition says. Going this way is a little more tricky because there are no guides on the internet for the style in your head. You have to decide what hops to use on your own. There are several great resources for the composition of hops and their oils. Yakima Chief and Hop Union provide Hop handbooks that list information like the Alpha Acid percentage, Beta Acid percentage, Cohumulone percentage, as well as the percentage of the four essential oils (Myrcene, Humulene, etc.). It will be a good idea to look at both handbooks as each will have more information in different areas than the other. You can now narrow down the hops that will fit into your intended hop profile.

Mikkeller Big Worse Barleywine

This review has been waiting on deck for a while so here goes.  I've recently been interested in Mikkeller brews but usually the sticker shock scares me off.  Regardless of price, I'm definitely glad I picked this one up.

The Big Worse poured with a very brief head.  The nose was loaded with huge malt and even bigger alcohol.  The smell really reminded me of a bourbon barrel'd imperial stout I tried from Stone when they toured through Missouri.  Interestingly enough this was not a bourbon barrel aged brew.  The taste was huge with malt character and had a very thick mouthfeel.  It was on the sweet side with minimal hop presence in the smell or taste.  This is a brew that pushes the limits of what you expect beer to be.  It almost ventures into the realm of brandy with it's boozy sweetness.  This brew would make a perfect dessert beer.  After a decadent meal this would follow perfectly as the closer.  Next time you plan a steak dinner at home, this beer will make a wonderful dessert.


This beer has been added to FatCat's Almost Epic list.  It didn't make the Epic list because it's probably a little to big for the uninitiated craft brew lover, therefore I could not recommend it to anyone.

Mikeller was formed by two homebrewers that have attained international recognition.  What is interesting is they are considered gipsy brewers.  They do not have there own facility but instead travel to different breweries in Denmark, Europe, and the United States to make their beers.  To learn more about their brew check them out here at RateBeer.com.

Flying Dog Brew is exiting stage left

If you have ever wanted to try Flying Dog Brew you better hustle to the store.  Flying Dog is pulling out of both Kansas and Missouri.  The news was broken locally by Show-Me Beer.  Click link below for more information.

Flying Dog Flying Out of Missouri

FatCat’s 2011 Imperial IPA shootout

As if we didn’t learn our lesson last time, we’re back for more. This time lets amp up the ABV to 9% and have a full on assault of our taste buds. Yeesss! One member of the tasting party was informed of the entries of our shootout and simply said, “Someone is going to die”. Now that is a proper response for a FatCat shootout.

The suspects are:
Stone Ruination

Odell Myrcenary

Boulevard Double Wide

Founder’s Double Trouble

Avery Maharaja

Moylan’s Hopsickle

Firestone Walker Double Jack

Kansas City Craft Beer Festival on Saturday

Beer KC has partnered with Aids Walk KC for a craft beer festival this weekend. 

The festival is this Saturday June 4th from 1:00PM- 4:00PM. 

There will be around 19 craft breweries, each of which bringing a seasonal or year-round beer plus one "special beer". 

Tickets are $25.00.

Here's the line up:

75th Street Brewery

Amerisports

Avery Brewing Co.

Bell's Brewery

Boulevard Brewing Co.

Brewery Ommegang

Crispin Cider
Firestone Walker Brewing Co.
Free State Brewing Co.
Goose Island Beer Co.
Gordon Biersch Restaurant and Brewery
Great Divide Brewing Co.
McCoy's Public House
New Belgium Brewing Co.
Odell Brewing Co.
Schlafly Beer
Ska Brewing Co.
Tallgrass Brewing Co.
The Doodle Brewing Co.
Southern Tier

Must be 21 to enter. Rain or shine event.

See Beer KC for more details

Gomer's South Tasting

Gomer's South will be offering samples from Avery Brewing Co.

Tonight from 4-6pm


White Rascal - Belgian White Ale
Ellie's - Brown Ale
IPA
The Reverend - Belgian Quadrupel Ale

Hop University - Day 2

OK homebrewers and the brave few who have made it to day 2.  Hop history is down, on to the fun stuff, how hops are used in beer making.  We’ve discussed that hops offer bitterness to beer which balances the sweet malt.  In order to get the bitterness out of the hops, they must first be boiled in the beer (wort).  The boiling causes the hop oils to isomerize and become soluble in the beer.  The hop oils contain two types of acids, Alpha acids and Beta acids.  Alpha acids provide the bittering component.  The Beta acids do not isomerize in the boil making them insoluble and provide only hop aroma to the beer.

Hops are typically rated based on their Alpha acid percentage by weight.  This rating gives the brewer a guideline for how much bitterness can be expected from a particular hop.  For example, a Cascade hop is around 4.5 Alpha acid % and a Galena hop is around 12.5 Alpha acid %.  So the brewer will need to use a lot less of the Galena hop at 12.5 AA% then they would Cascade at 4.5 AA% hop to get the same amount of bitterness.  Brewers measure the amount of expected bitterness for their beers with IBUs (International Bitterness Units).  The higher the IBUs, the higher the expected bitterness in the final beer.  Below are some typical values for certain styles of beer.

Light Lager (Bud Light, etc) – 5-10 IBU

Dry Stout (Guinness) – 30-45 IBU

American Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada) – 30-45 IBU

American IPA (Founder’s Centennial) – 40-60 IBU

Double IPA (Stone Ruination) - 60-120 IBU

Generally speaking the higher the IBU the more bitter the beer will be.  Although the Dry Stout and the American Pale Ale have the same IBUs, the stout has sweet malts which will balance the bitterness.  So even though they could have the same IBU, the stout will seem less bitter because of its sweeter malt components.

Now that we know how hops provide bitterness to beer, we need to figure out what is it going to taste like.  There are two types of Alpha acids, Humulone and Cohumulone.  Humulone is thought to provide the softer more desirable bitterness.  Cohumulone in contrast is thought to be harsher in its bitterness and therefore less desirable.  The next consideration is the four main essential oils in hops which contribute to flavor.  They are Myrcene, Humulene, Caryophyllene, and Farnesene .  The two oils that brewers are concerned with (at least I only worry about the two) are Myrcene and Humulene.  Myrcene lends a more citrusy and tropical note to the beer while Humulene has a more spicy and floral signature.   With information regarding the Cohumulone levels and the amounts of the essential oils in particular hops, brewers can get a good idea of what hop characteristics they can expect from their finished brew.  Below are some examples of hop flavor characteristics for certain styles.

IPA – Bell’s Two Hearted – uses Centennial hops which are high in Myrcene causing big citrus and grapefruit character.

Pilsner – Pilsner Urquell  - Uses Saaz hops which are high in Humulene lending a mellow spice and floral note.

American Lager – Sam Adams Boston Lager – uses Hallertau which is high in Humulene making it spicy.  It is also low in Cohumulone so the bitter is more pleasant and less aggressive.

IPA – Bridgeport The Czarr – is brewed with Chinook hops which are high in Cohumulone and give it a very aggressive, harsh bitter character.

 References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Adlupulone#Adlupulone

http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/3808775