essential food & beverage
We’re Going
Hopless
by Kyle Jacobson
Humankind has been brewing beer for almost 6,000 years that we’re aware of. The first use of hops is thought to have been sometime around the 9th century, that’s around 4,800 years later. Most brewers can tell you the year the famous German purity law, the one that states beer must be produced with barley,
hops, and water, went into effect (1516). So you ask most any brewer or drinker what the four main ingredients are in any beer, and they’ll tell you grain, yeast, water, and hops. But why hops? Well, there are a variety of reasons. Brewing Microbiology, edited by Fergus G. Priest and Iain Campbell, suggests that it could be because beers brewed with hops “were the most resistant to spoilage.” There’s also the sweetness from the sugars in malted barley, maltose, that the acids in hops help to mellow out. The thing is, hops are not the only way to achieve balance. There are an incredible array of herbs and spices out there with the potential to balance yeast and hop characteristics in ways hops simply can’t. We have attached ourselves to a tradition that takes up around 17 percent of beer’s life. At this point in time, I don’t think it’s a conscious choice, but, to some degree, an unwitting one. Some of you may be thinking of ancient beer recipes that have been reproduced
40 | m a d i s o n e s s e n t i a l s
that turned out...less than impressive. Nick Ryan, owner and brewmaster of Herbiery Brewing—a brewery that exclusively brews hop-free beer, says, “I think a lot of recreating of old recipes has resulted in not great beer because it’s been to the letter of those old recipes.” If we still brewed with herbs and spices aside from hops, evolutions in process would’ve modified recipes to better balance ingredients. “I’m taking inspiration, but clearly I’m not recreating Ancient Egyptian recipes.” The established styles of beer that so many know and love didn’t come out of thin air. The majority result from years and years and years of proven track records. But imagine having access to a random house recipe from the 1300s and recreating it today. I’m not so confident it’s going to knock anyone’s socks off. Something misleading the drinker in the contemporary brewing world is the use of some of these alternate herbs and spices in excess, almost like a chef who just discovered salt. “I think in the past, people who have done herb beers have
