Just what goes into creating quality hops?

The team at Loughran Brewers Select offers some insight into how the best quality hops are cultivated…

At Loughran Brewers Select we’re fortunate enough to work with some of the world’s top hop suppliers like Crosby Hops, Indie Hops (both in the Pacific North West USA), and Hop Revolution (New Zealand). Brewers and appreciators of great beer know what quality hops bring to beer, but what they might not know is just what goes into creating quality hops. So we thought we’d share some of our insights from our experience in the industry.

Growing conditions play a key role in creating quality hops. Hops are intimately affected by their soils and environmental factors (terroir). The same hop, grown in a similar region of the same continent, can exhibit different aroma characteristics. These can even vary from field to field, so it’s important for growers to keep track of individual lots.

Pest management is vital, including which hop varieties to grow or even develop. Indie Hops Strata, for instance, was developed to be very resistant to downy and powdery mildew. Hops can be protected from pests by many means, but it’s essential for that protection to be both effective and sustainable – through a Salmon-Safe program or similar. Progressive growers utilise natural beneficial predators to eliminate pests, avoiding the use of traditional pesticides. Hop producers must select their partner hop growers and farms carefully, utilising the experience of experts, committing themselves to quality assurance programs like GlobalG.A.P for best growing practices.

Brewers will be familiar with the allimportant ‘pick window’ when it comes to harvesting. Hops harvested too early or too late will exhibit ‘off’ aromas – too washed out and ‘grassy’ (early pick), or pungent and pongy (late pick). Picking the right time to harvest hops is an art, informed by science (alpha acid and oil analysis), as well as gut feeling – all-important sensory analysis in the field. Creativity plays a part here too –working alongside brewers, Hop Revolution in New Zealand has been able to offer the same varieties of hops harvested at different points in the pick window to suit the needs and style of the brewery. Effective planning by growers is also essential in hop harvesting. Hop pick windows are notoriously short, so it’s essential to harvest quickly, bringing an extensive fleet of specialised machinery to bear to get harvested in time.

Growers must also ‘weed out’ undesirable plants (rogue male varieties) and harvest from lots with fewer seeds, which offer little brewing value. The best ‘hop harvester’ machines will ensure that hop cones are effectively separated from leaves and stems. After harvesting, hops are kilned to dry and remove moisture. A quality hop producer should kiln just right – not too hot (high temperatures reduce hop oils) and without over-stacking the hop bed (resulting in uneven drying and over-drying). Hops due for pelletising are then ‘squashed’ into hop bales but should first be conditioned to balance out moisture content for consistency. Bales need to be stored frozen to prevent degradation, and carefully analysed for quality (both sensory and in the lab) before they’re ‘processed’.

Processing is again all about timing – some hop varieties are incredibly susceptible to degradation even when stored properly, and need to be processed ASAP (like Centennial and Idaho 7®). Ideal pelletising temperature is under 50°C as temperature control is essential to prevent loss of essential hops oils. Squeezing hop powder through a die into a pellet generates lots of heat, and a good hop producer will have methods in place to keep temperatures down. Hop pellets exposed to high temperatures have a glassy, shiny, or even burnt appearance. Contact with oxygen should be minimised at all points throughout the process too.

Pellet consistency is another ‘just right’ aspect of quality hop production. When hops are blended, they must be carefully analysed. Pellets also need to be the correct consistency. Dense pellets sink to the bottom of the tank without enough contact with the beer to impart flavour. Not dense enough, and they crumble in packaging, or float on top of the beer in dry hopping. The perfect pellet will break up into plant matter when ground by hand, and will sit perfectly suspended in beer, allowing flavours and aromas to disperse. Crosby Hops™ as a producer has invested a great deal of time and care into the perfect pelletisation process, creating incredible quality pellets which really are a wonder to work with.

Even after they’re pelletised, hops are fussy about how they’re stored. They should be packed in light-resistant nitrogen or CO2 flushed bags to avoid hop ‘spoilers’ – light, oxygen and heat. A hop supplier should work hand in hand with an ingredients supplier to ensure hops are stored as cold as possible –from when they leave the merchant, to their transport, and then warehouse storage before they reach the brewer. Properly stored and sealed hop pellets can remain good for over half a decade. Once they’ve arrived at the brewery, there’s still a lot of work to ensure hops retain quality. Much of this involves storing hops as cool as possible, ideally using the whole hop pack once it’s opened, or flushing it with Nitrogen or CO2 then resealing and freezing. Again, hops must avoid light, oxygen, and heat! When pulling hops out of brewery storage, common sense evaluation always applies – do they smell right, and do they look right?

Ultimately, selecting the right hops comes down to a series of complex series of decisions – some subjective, and some objective. A brewer should learn about the processes which have gone into creating the hops they are adding into their beer. Hops represent one of the greatest ingredient costs in the whole brewing process (and certainly the biggest outlay in terms of proportional volume), so it’s well worth investing in quality hops to guarantee a superb pint at the end!

Find out more at www.brewersselect.co.uk