Hops: The soul of a beer

As the German Beer Purity Law states beer can only be made of four ingredients: malt, water, hops and yeast.  Beer is not beer without hops.  True there were fermented malt beverages before the use of hops, but drinking a Gruit is not the same as enjoying an IPA.  As many of you may have, I have had the opportunity to have a gruit or two and can readily say that I am glad that the simple little hop cone was introduced into the brewing process.  Beer would not be nearly as good nor would it be in as many varieties.  Could you imagine an Imperial Stout bittered  bog myrtle or wormwood, I can't either.

Earliest mentions of hops were by the Romans and Babylonians and eventually made it into Europe and over the years became an integral part of beer.  The "noble" hops are all of European origins; also the largest hop growing region is in Central Europe.  There are four hops that are considered to be "noble" hops Hallertauer Mittelfrüh, Tettnanger Tettnang, Spalter Spalt and Saaz.  A number of other hops make it into the discussion of "noble" hops, but not everyone agrees.  

Noble hops are far from the only hops used in the beers styles of Europe and around the world.  Hops are grown around the world; the leading hop growing areas are in Europe, North America, New Zealand and Japan.  Different growing regions lead to different characteristics in hops, so that means if a certain hop variety is grown in Europe and in New Zealand they could be totally different even though it is genetically the same.
Also hop varieties are broken up into bittering and aroma hops.  Usually hops that are high in alpha acids, the thing that makes beer bitter, they are labeled as bittering hops.  Hops that are labeled aroma hops have unique aroma characteristics.  As craft brewers and homebrewers become more daring the lines between bittering and aroma hops have become blurred.  An example of this is the Hydra Kolsch I helped brew this year; we used Sorachi Ace as a bittering hop. It is usually used as a flavor hop in most beers.

There are numerous varieties of hops grown around the world, too numerous for me to list here.  Probably the most complete list I know of is at Hop Union, http://www.hopunion.com/17_HopVarietyHandbook.cfm?p3=open, the hop variety handbook goes into great detail of hop varieties.
The numerous hop varieties lead to being used to make numerous styles of beer, different beers utilize different hops.  Most beers are brewed with regionally available hops, ie, Saaz hops in a Pilsner, Cascade hops in a West Coast IPA.

Hops are the soul of beer, without hops beer would be bland and lifeless.   They go beyond the mere physical presence in a beer and become almost mystical.  A soul is sad to be nearly weightless and in the scheme of a beer a few ounces of hops is the equivalent.  The end result of hops in a beer is greater than just the addition into the brewing process.  The introduction of hops at different times in the brewing process lead to different characteristics emphasized and shining through in the final beer.
 Without hops, beer is not beer.  A big thank you goes out to those first intrepid brewers that decided to throw some hop cone into their beer.

QC Beerguy