Choosing The Best Hop For Your Beer

What are hops?
Hops are a cone-like structure which grows on the female hop plant, Humulus lupulus. The hop plant is a fast climbing perennial vine which was first documented in the Middle Ages in Germany, where their use supplanted the use of bitter herbs as a beer preservative.

Hops are processed into a number of forms: the whole dried hop, the pelletized hop, the hop plug, and the extracted hop oil. Mr. Beer uses the pelletized hop, as it is compact and stores well.
 

What do hops do for beer?
Hops are a marvelous, multipurpose ingredient in beer. The hop oils, when boiled, form bitter acids which help balance the otherwise too sweet flavor of malt. These acids also help preserve the beer, as they have a bacteriostatic action. Hops also have beneficial actions in the malt manufacturing, as they help condense proteins and clear the wort while in the kettle. Another thing that hops do, of course, is to lend flavor and aroma to the beer.
 

What is the difference between bittering, flavor, and aroma?
When hops are boiled during the preparation of the malt extract, natural hop oils transform into bitter acids which are essential to beer. Not very much of the volatile hop flavor remains when hops are boiled extensively.

To capture the flavor of the hops, the hops must be added towards the end of the malt extract boiling. Still, with this little amount of boiling, most of the delicate aroma of the hop is driven off.

To achieve hop aroma, one must add the hops at the end of the heating process. This is what happens when you add hop pellets directly to your fermenter, in a process called "dry hopping." Often, these late addition hops are called "finishing hops."

Which hops go best with which beers?
The traditional line of thinking is that mellow, refined hops, often called Noble Hops, are best for European styles of beer. The more potent American and New Zealand hops are favored for the bolder flavored American ales. But this is only a generalization, as you can combine any hops with any malts and create a beer as individual as you!

Mr. Beer® sells two classic Noble varieties (Tettnanger and Saaz), and two refined American hybrids that had Noble parents (Willamette and Liberty).

For bolder American hop flavor there are the piney-citrusy hops (Cascade and Centennial), the pungent and balsamy multipurpose hop used in many American Lagers (Galena), and the earthy-minty Northern Brewer, useful in American, English, and German ales

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