Hop morphology and new hop products

Dry hop form

Most of the hops we use as brewers are in the form of dry hops. These include whole hops, hop pellets and hop plugs. These hops are harvested, dried to low moisture content and packaged. The pelleted hops are chopped and compressed into small pellets before packaging.

The vast majority of hops sold today are granular. Whole hops are quite rare, and plug hops are even rarer today. Pellets of hops are usually best stored because they have a smaller surface area than whole leaf hops and the utilization rate of hops is slightly higher. The storage characteristics of plug hops are also slightly better than that of leaves, and they are not chopped like pellet hops. Hops have the shortest shelf life, but if you keep them fresh, that's great.

The natural enemies of hops are light, heat and oxygen, so modern hop packaging is usually done in a vacuum-packed aluminum foil bag to prevent these three from happening at the same time. In addition, hops are now stored at temperatures close to freezing point, usually in the refrigerator, to minimize the amount of heat that can prematurely age the hops.

Wet, fresh and frozen whole hops

The term "wet hops" means fresh hops that have not been dried or processed. They have an extremely short shelf life and usually need to be used within 1-3 days after harvest. Wet hops generally have a greener plant flavor than dry hops.

Some hop growers are also starting to freeze fresh whole hops and vacuum pack them so that you can store them frozen like pellets. Although not cheap, if you want to try brewing with wet hops and cannot use your own hop plant, this may be a good choice.

Carbon dioxide hops extract

CO2 hop extract is the most common form of hop extract. It is widely used for commercial-level bitterness because the extract can be stored for many years. This method distills bitter compounds into a thick syrup, which is usually sold in professional-grade cans or homemade-grade small syringes.

CO2 extract is actually only suitable for bitter additives because it has almost no aromatic compounds, and it must be boiled to isomerize the alpha acid. Because it is concentrated, it usually contains about 60-70% alpha acid. In fact, you can treat it like other bitter hops, but with an alpha content of more than 60% by weight, instead of the 4-15% content you might get from pelleted hops. Allows you to specify the CO2 extract and enter the amount in milliliters. This is usually the way to measure the dose. You can enter the alpha acid from the label on the can, usually in the range of 60% or higher.

Isomerized hop extract

Although more rare and expensive than CO2 extracts, heterogeneous extracts are available at home and commercial levels. The significant advantage of isomerized hop extract is that the alpha acid (bitter compound) has been isomerized before being concentrated. This means you can add extracts to finished beer to increase the bitterness of the beer. Therefore, if the hop content in your finished beer is too low, you can directly add the isomerized hop extract to "flavor" until you reach the bitterness level you want. The isomeric extract is used as a bitter taste additive because it contains a small amount of aromatic oil.

Lupin flour and frozen hops

Lupin powder is a dry powder that is extracted and concentrated from the lupin glands of hop cones using a proprietary process. Unlike CO2 extract, lupin powder can preserve the aromatic oil in hops, so lupin powder is most suitable for dry hops.

Since it is concentrated, you can use fewer ounces than using regular dry hops.

Aromatic oil extract

For home and professional brewers, the latest hop product may be various hop oil extracts. These are sold in the form of homemade beer and can be added directly to finished beer. The most common ones I have seen are sold as aroma extracts from specific hop varieties (such as citrus). Adding a few drops to a pint of beer will produce an explosive aroma.

At the professional level, you can also buy individual hop oils, such as myrcene, geraniol, and linalool, to adjust the specific aroma components of the finished beer. Depending on your goals, you can add these at the end of the fermentation to achieve biotransformation, or you can add them to the finished beer to increase the aroma. Choosing the right amount of addition and the best oil blend can be a challenge, although you can add them to the finished beer in small increments until you reach the aroma level you want.

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