Hops

Hops Hops are the spice of beer, contributing bitterness, aroma and flavor to the finished brew. In order to extract the bitterness from the hop, the hop must be boiled which causes the bittering resins to isomerize or go into solution. This boiling usually lasts for one hour. All unhopped malt should be hopped in order to balance the sweet flavor of the malt. A good reference point for hop use is approximately two ounces per 5 gallon batch. On further batches you may fine tune your beer according to your personal taste. The flavor and aroma comes from oils which are volatile and so are quickly boiled off. These flavors and aroma are best preserved if added late at the very end of the boil. These are called finishing hops. The hops are all rated in terms of the Alpha Acid content. The higher this number the more potent the bittering potential. The lower numbers usually reflect good aromatic varieties. Hops come in several forms, primarily pellets, whole flowers and plugs. The pellets provide a more constant freshness and increased bittering potential, while the flowers are easily strained. The plugs are packaged in nitrogen purged foil bags to ensure freshness, and are basically whole flowers compressed, not shredded, into plugs. Our stock varies with the season so please check availability when ordering. Flowers are packaged in vacuum sealed oxygen/light barrier bags to preserve freshness.