All about hops

[Wonderwoman]

Right so... The other day I drank the most beautiful (wheat) beer ever and it inspired me to look more into hops. As a newbie this is such a big field, so many varieties, so many different flavours, when to add to the boil or dry hopping etc. It's like you'd need a university degree, just to understand the basics of each variety.

So please, if you have any links (all I've found so far were those tables that describe the taste of each hop) about hopping, or a great book about that, let me know!

Also.. and this is probably a stupid question, but is there a way that you can determine the flavour for yourself, before testing it all on a batch of beer (i.e. could you soak some in water then smell or taste it or boil some just to get an idea of their flavour?)

The beer I drank the other day and of which I only have one more bottle is a new regional brand from my home in Bavaria - it's called "Wernecker Frankonia Weisse Hell" (http://www.wernecker-bier.de/hefeweisse.html) and I wish it was possible to give some out to you guys. It wasn't just your traditional wheat beer flavour of yeast and maybe bananas, but it was such a round mouthfeel and tasted really fruity.

I should start an import business

 

[terrym]

Why not ask the brewery what sort of hops they use in your wheat beer?
They may be helpful.
A lot of breweries now share this type of information especially with a rise in the interest in craft beers.

 

[GHW]

I like this guide but it's by no means comprehensive.
http://www.bear-flavored.com/2011/12/bear-flavoreds-ultimate-guide-to-hop.html?m=1

The only way to really discover which you like is try beers made with different hops. For instance I've always liked us style hops in ipAs but didn't realise it til I started brewing and looked up the beers I liked online.

So start there. Try and find whAt hops your wheat beer has and try making something with them. There's a good chance they will be a German noble variety such as hallertauer but then again there is so much experimentation these days you never know!

 

[Wonderwoman]

Good point, I never thought about asking with all the secrecy that's involved in beer brewing!

Gareth, where did you find out about the hops or was it all home brew recipes?

 

[MyQul]

To test out the flavour of hops you can dry hop in the bottle using a very bland commercial beer like bud light. I also understand grolsch is another beer that it good for this (I think another forum member uses grolsh to do this, can't remeber who though) and a particularly good one for you as you can then reuse the swing top bottles. Note - you can only use pellets to do this and not leaf hops

www.bertusbrewery.com/2013/03/dry-hopped-bud-light.html?m=1

 

[Wonderwoman]

Very interesting, I've just read their own small description of the beer on their website and they say that it has a strong wheat and yeast character with barely any hop flavours but when served at 5-8 degrees it has the aroma of lime and bananas.

I remember it was very fruity but not overly sweet. Just really balanced. might have to do with the yeast, too, eh?

 

[MyQul]

Hop meister Clibit is another good source of info:

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=52909

and have a look at some of the stickys in this forum

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=54342

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7346

 

[MyQul]

Very interesting, I've just read their own small description of the beer on their website and they say that it has a strong wheat and yeast character with barely any hop flavours but when served at 5-8 degrees it has the aroma of lime and bananas.

I remember it was very fruity but not overly sweet. Just really balanced. might have to do with the yeast, too, eh?

I know very little about wheat beers as I dont like them but I do know yeast plays a massive part in the flavour profile of this style of beer

 

[Wonderwoman]

To test out the flavour of hops you can dry hop in the bottle using a very bland commercial beer like bud light. I also understand grolsch is another beer that it good for this (I think another forum member uses grolsh to do this, can't remeber who though) and a particularly good one for you as you can then reuse the swing top bottles. Note - you can only use pellets to do this and not leaf hops

www.bertusbrewery.com/2013/03/dry-hopped-bud-light.html?m=1

That's a great blog, guess what's on my shopping list for ASDA

Are you still thinking about making these little hop samples I read about a while ago?

 

[MyQul]

I've already done the taster packs about 6 weeks ago

 

[Wonderwoman]

I've already done the taster packs about 6 weeks ago

Ah, okay, maybe next time then :)

 

[clibit]

Your wheat beer will have mostly had flavours from the yeast. I look up most of the commercial beers I drink online to find out what hops they use, bot all provide info but many do. I tend to brew small batches on order to try out different hops, and split larger batches to make the same beer with different hops. I have several cheap stock pots.

I aim to do this mote with yeasts now, yeasts can make big differences to a beer.