What Are Hops? A Lesson on Beer Fermentation

The ever-growing craft beer movement in the U.S. has meant an explosion in the demand for hops, and that continues to ring true for beer producers around Minnesota, too. Much of it can be directly attributed to the highly popular, wildly successful, blazing intensity of West Coast IPAs. Those India Pale Ales brought the hops, and the country's thirst jumped on board (pun intended). 

Understanding Hops

Basically, it breaks down like this—beer is brewed with four primary ingredients: grain, hops, yeast, and water. When it comes to hops, it's the one ingredient that hasn't always been essential but the one that is depended upon as a flavoring agent, to balance the sweetness of the brew by adding bitterness and to act as a preservative. All of those floral, citrus, and herbal aromas and flavors? Thank the hops.

The addition of hops to beer is a relative newcomer. Beer has been around since antiquity, but it was really the Middle Ages that brought hops to the mix. Still, what are hops?

Hops are the female flowering cone of a hop plant, otherwise known as the Humulus lupulus (which, fun fact, is a cousin of the Cannabis plant). They are added to the boiling process of beer production. West Coast IPAs have the power of location because they are brewed where the hops are grown. The Pacific Northwest states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho's panhandle grow 97.8% of the hops in the United States.

Want hops? Check out these brews.

• Founders All Day IPA
• New Belgium Voodoo Ranger Imperial IPA
• Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
• Rush River IPA
• Badger Hill Traitor IPA

Want to learn more? Check out this video from the University of Minnesota Department of Plant Pathology or this Guide to Hops from Beer Advocate. If you were simply curious and would like to get back to sipping on a “hoppy” beer, we can help with that!