Is A Hoppy Beer A Happy Beer?

By Harry Hager at September 8, 2011 | 10:09 am | Print

As a beer lover you would think I would be thrilled that the craft brewing industry seems recession proof. While I feel a pain in my wallet paying ten plus dollars for a six pack or worse yet a four pack of these artisan brews — but if the beer is that good and some are — others are vast disappointments. So why now with more choices available than ever before do so many craft brews taste so much alike?

I’d prefer to think that these similarities are not so much a lack of skill as a lack of imagination. So let’s break down the problem.

On the skill side, a craftsman knows his materials (or ingredients) and his craft is produced through his artful use of aforementioned ingredients. The combination, the amounts, the interaction and the techniques and processes used are what produce the craft — in this case beer. The same amount of the same ingredients can produce drastically different beer depending on how they are brewed and fermented.

On the ingredient side we have the basic Reinheitsgebot mandate of malt, hops, and yeast.

I will credit most craft brewers with using malt as their primary source of fermentable sugars. At least they haven’t gone the route of using cheaper rice or corn like most the mega breweries. Malt is the traditional choice and is responsible for not only the fermentable sugars which convert to alcohol but for the non-fermentable sugars which give the beer body, flavor and mouth feel.

Yeast is a little trickier ingredient. With thousands of live cultures to choose from, each leaving its own residual attributes and those attributes changing depending on both the amount of yeast used and the conditions it is fermented under, it would be difficult to blame the yeast for the sameness of craft brews. And realistically, unless you drink a lot of bottled conditioned ales, when did you last taste a beer and recognize a yeast ester? Most people wouldn’t recognize a yeast ester if it stood up and slapped them.

Speaking of standing up and slapping you, let’s examine the last ingredient in the beer triumvirate — hops. Probably the most noticeable of the ingredients because of its powerful aroma and flavor. Hops are also the easiest to be misused. In the same botanical family as nettles and marijuana, hops use in beer is a relatively recent addition. That is, it has been used predominantly in the last five hundred years of beer’s five thousand plus year history. Why? Well, frankly it was a commerce decision, partially instituted to keep other herbs and narcotic out of a commercial product and partially because the addition of hops helped beer age longer without spoiling.

The addition of hops to beer was a controversial subject. English brewers initially referred to it as a pernicious weed. Proponents claimed it was good for curing insomnia. Opponents claimed it was a euphoric used to calm the masses. Even today, hops high phyto-estrogen content is a perpetual source of worry for conspiracy theorist worried about “brewer’s droop”. Considering that the first use of hops in beer was in eighth century Germanic monasteries this may have been perceived as a benefit.

So maybe today’s craft brewers have never heard of brewer’s droop or maybe Viagra fixed that, but I would still argue that it is the misuse or abuse of hops that is primarily responsible for the lack of differentiation among many of the craft brews on the market today.

Let me be upfront. I am a malt guy. I like hops (particularly the noble varieties). I like the aroma and the flavor of hops — as a complement to the rest of the beer. Beer is not solely a showcase for hops. I like different styles of beer. Some are hoppier than others. For me, a brewer’s skill is far more demonstrated brewing a beer that is balanced with proper body, mouth feel and flavor — for its style, rather than one that is simply over hopped.

Unfortunately far too many craft brewers have fallen into relying solely on hops to try and differentiate their beers. Beer bitterness has increased drastically in the past few years. Ten years ago a high bitterness rating of 80 IBU (international bittering units) was reserved for big bold styles that had the malt profile to balance it. A beer like a Russian Imperial Stout demands aggressive hopping but applying the same hopping in a Pale Ale is simply an abuse of style.

Over hopping is a cheap gimmick and craft brewers should know better. To make matters worse craft brewers often choose the same type of hops to over use. If I crave the citrusy grapefruit taste of Cascade hops I’ll buy Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. There is no reason to up the ante and make every other IPA taste like pine needles. Oh, and by the way, could someone brew a decent porter that doesn’t have coffee in it?

Beer Misc Stuff brewer’s droop, craft brews, India Pale Ale, Russion Imperial Stout, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale