Crash Course on Hops

My blog is called Girls on Hops and I have yet to truly define a hop. Shame on me. Here I am calling beers "hoppy," "hoptastic," and "hopsational" but haven't defined what that even means. I will remedy this situation now.

The official Latin name: Humulus Lupulus—yep, in the same family as cannabis, but that is a blog for another day.

The Basics: Hops are a climbing plant on a vine, that are actually pretty delicate. Only the female plant can be used in beer making. Hops are harvested and then either dried quickly to keep the oils in tact or used right away—wet hopped.

What flavor do hops give to beer?
There are tons of commercial hops varieties in use around the world, so every different strain of hops will give a slightly different flavor and aroma. When I say a beer is "hoppy" though, I'm usually describing two typical traits from my limited palate:

1. Bitterness
2.Tangyness
 
However, different varieties can give your brew any range of flavors and scents from grassy, spicy, herbal, piney, floral or citrusy. If you want to isolate a flavor of a specific hop in your beer, try a single hop beer. This means the beer was brewed with only one variety of hops so you can easily grasp the unique flavor of the hop used.

Besides being the ultimate seasoning in beer, hops are ultra-important for the aroma, head retention and act as a major deterrent from spoilage. Pretty magical, eh?

Except, sometimes people don't like them. A truly hopcentric beer sometimes requires a conditioned palate to actually enjoy. Don't worry though, beers like india pale ales, imperial pale ales and india rye lagers are an acquired taste that novice beer drinkers might not like right away. Give it time. Pretty soon you'll be ordering double IPA's and savoring the complexities. Whatever you do, don't dump a beer because it's too hoppy for you. Suck it up and acquire the taste. I still have times that I'm not used to the bitterness but I keep calm and drink on—because good girls don't waste good beer.