mook1979
Active Member
Hi,
My wife picked up a "Foraged Herb Heffeweise" the other day. I have never tasted a beer made with herbs instead of hops, so was quite eager to try it. It was quite bad on every level. The most noticeable thing was the carbonation. There was no mention on the bottle of how it was carbonated, but it did not have the small bubbles that create a smooth, soft foam that tend to stick around for a bit on most styles of beer. This was like pouring a glass of carbonated water. It had huge bubbles that disappeared almost instantly. It tasted pretty awful, which reminded me of much much of a hope head and beer geek I have become since I started AG brewing. I would like to think that most of us get almost as excited about pouring a homebrew and admiring head retention, colour and carbonation before taking a sip. It is part of the fun for me.
It left me wondering if hops play other roles apart from just balancing out the sweet malty flavours and preserve beer. Is it only higher alpha hops that adds mouth-feel or does all hops do this? I created a test batch of beer a while back and did research about how much carapils to add for mouth feel and stumbled onto someone referring to the mouth feel that some hops can add. Perhaps someone can provide some useful information on the subject.
My wife picked up a "Foraged Herb Heffeweise" the other day. I have never tasted a beer made with herbs instead of hops, so was quite eager to try it. It was quite bad on every level. The most noticeable thing was the carbonation. There was no mention on the bottle of how it was carbonated, but it did not have the small bubbles that create a smooth, soft foam that tend to stick around for a bit on most styles of beer. This was like pouring a glass of carbonated water. It had huge bubbles that disappeared almost instantly. It tasted pretty awful, which reminded me of much much of a hope head and beer geek I have become since I started AG brewing. I would like to think that most of us get almost as excited about pouring a homebrew and admiring head retention, colour and carbonation before taking a sip. It is part of the fun for me.
It left me wondering if hops play other roles apart from just balancing out the sweet malty flavours and preserve beer. Is it only higher alpha hops that adds mouth-feel or does all hops do this? I created a test batch of beer a while back and did research about how much carapils to add for mouth feel and stumbled onto someone referring to the mouth feel that some hops can add. Perhaps someone can provide some useful information on the subject.
