How to Talk Like a Beer Geek: All About the Hops!

Welcome to the latest installment of How to Talk Like a Beer Geek. Today, it’s all about the hops! Whether you like super hoppy beers or malty beers with very little hoppy flavors, hops are a major player in every beer. Just ask the Reinheitsgebot! Ummm... Yeah, we will get to the Reinheitsgebot another time.... for now, let’s get HOPPY!

The first term for today is NOBLE HOPS. There are four noble hops out there; Saaz, Tettnanger, Spalt, and Halltertua. These hops all have low bitterness and are hops with lots of aroma. Some specific beers must be brewed with these noble hops to be considered “genuine” for their beer style. Also, lots of people will tell you that to be considered true noble hops these hops must be grown in a specific region. This whole noble hops thing sounds a bit stuffy to me and elitist, but we gotta know the terms so we can scream out our beer geekiness!

The next hop term is FRESH HOPPED/WET HOPPED. These terms mean the same thing. Basically it is using hops in a beer that have been very recently picked and have yet to be dried out. This brings different levels of oils in the hops to the beer and really can make a hug difference in a beer, even from using the same hops but ones that have been dried out. You see fresh/wet hopped beers seasonally around fall each year after the hops have been harvested.

The final term for today before we... ummm... hop outta here... is DRY HOPPED. No, this isn’t what your neighbor’s dog is trying to do to your leg, but rather dry hopping a beer is the brewing practice of adding hops to a beer after the boil. Usually hops are added at different stages during the boil, depending on if the hops are used for aroma or bitterness. But dry hopping again will give different flavors and aromas than a beer that is just hopped during the boil. It’s all about getting different stuff out of the same ingredient by using it in a different way!

So there you go! A few hoppy beer geek terms for all you hop heads out there. Now, hop on over to your local tap room, have a beer, and talk hops!

How to Talk Like a Beer Geek; Beer in Your Beer Hole!

Today we are going to talk about a few terms that have to do with your beer hole! The best thing about beer, plain and simple, is putting it in your mouth. But once that beery goodness is in there, a lot goes on. So let’s talk about a few things going on up in there!

The first term is mouthfeel. This word is basically the way the beer feels when it is all up in your beer hole. Is it sparkly feeling from lots of carbonation, creamy feeling from being a nitro beer, or maybe a bit of an oily coating feel from an abundance of hop oils? A lot of things can contribute to this including sugars, hops, proteins, adjuncts, carbonation method and amount, the list goes on and on.

The next term is surprisingly not the end of your mouth’s drinking experience:  The finish! The finish is how the beer tastes and makes your mouth feel right after you swallow that big gulp of deliciousness. Does it have a malty finish, a hoppy finish, a dry finish...? The big finish has a big effect on your mouth’s beer happiness level.

The final mouth piece of drinking your beer is the aftertaste. Many people would say this is the same as the finish, and I guess this is partly correct, but partly not. Aftertaste is more the lingering tastes that stick around for a while after you are done with your beer or are done with a gulp of it. The main reason why I disagree with those who say that finish and aftertaste are the same thing is that every beer has a finish, but not every beer has an aftertaste to it.

So there you go, aspiring beer geeks! Three beer terms that help make your beer hole happy; mouthfeel, finish, and aftertaste... Just to make sure you have these three terms covered I think it’s time for you to go put some beer in your mouth!

Know Your Hops! Fuggles

I learned a lot about the versatility of Fuggles this year, mostly in part to my visit to Leach Lake Brewing.  There they use Fuggles hops in just about every one of their beers:

According to The Brewmasters Bible this hop is “[the] classic finishing hops” (Snyder, 1997).  What they mean by finishing hop is that most beer adds hops usually in two stages during the boil.  The first stage is the”bittering” hops.  These hops are used to offset the cloying sweetness of the malt. Great examples of bittering hops are Hellertauer used in German Lagers, and Saaz hops which is what makes Czech Pilsners famous.  The second addition of hops is usually only steeped for a few minutes to impart aroma to the beer and these are called aroma or “finishing hops”.  Fuggles is the latter type and are most commonly used in traditional British Ales especially their versions of Pale Ales, Porters and Stouts.

According to The Oxford Companion to Beer Fuggles is named after Richard Fuggles who introduced the variety in 1861.  It was used extensively due to is pleasantness on the taster’s palate, and its resistance to several diseases that were plaguing other hop strain at the time.  (Oliver, 2012)  Fuggle hops is slowly being replaced by more “efficient” hop varieties with similar properties and aromas, but there a few breweries out there still using it.  The best way to taste Fuggle hops in all its glory is to track down any beer from Leech Lake Brewing.

Until next time, PROST!

Works Cited

Oliver, G. (2012). The Oxford Companion to Beer. New York: Oxford University Press.

Snyder, S. (1997). The Brewmasters Bible: The Gold Standard for Homebrewers. New York: HarperCollins.