Everything you need to know about... hops
In the first of a series on the brewing of beer Nigel Huddleston looks at the role of the hop
What is a hop?
The hop is a wild, sprawling plant – humulus lupulus in Latin, meaning wolf plant, so-named because the Romans said it grew wild among willow trees like a wolf among sheep – tamed by hop farmers by training it round poles to give it the best access to the light. The hop flower, or cone, contains oils and acids that help to give flavour, aroma and stabilising qualities to beer. After harvesting, hops have to be dried to prevent them becoming affected by mould and to enhance their floral aromas, traditionally done in the United Kingdom in conetopped oast houses.
Where do they grow?
With its rural landscape dotted by oast houses (once used for drying hops but now almost universally converted to the kind of houses you see in Sunday supplement ‘interiors’ sections), Kent is usually thought as the main hop area of Britain.
These days, the oast houses all have fund managers living in them, and Kent has even lost the honour of being the hop capital of the United Kingdom to Herefordshire in terms of hop farm acreage. Hereford, Worcestershire and Kent account for around 95 per cent of UK production. Sussex, Suffolk and Surrey have relatively small levels of hop production.
In Europe, Bohemia in the Czech Republic and Hallertau in Bavaria, Germany, are among the most important, while Washington State is the United States’ hotbed.
What’s their significance to beer?
Hops are usually added to beer to provide flavour or aroma. For flavour, they provide a sharp bitterne.....
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By Nigel Huddleston
Section : Beer Production
Page number : 62
