Beer Snob or Merely Someone Who Knows What They Like?

The other day I was asked a question about beer that sort of prompted me to write this post. That person shall remain anonymous, but I’ll give you a hint: He has a blog spot about Pure Florida! (Sorry FC, but I just couldn’t resist)

Anyway the question was (paraphrasing here): Is it the hops that make beer bitter, and how do I know what styles to look for to get a beer that I will like?

To answer this question I may need to share some history and get slightly technical, but I’ll try to keep it as generic as I can. In fact here is how simple it can be. Beer (according to the Reinheitsgebout: German Purity law) is made from Water, Malt, Hops, and Yeast. Malt (usually barley or wheat) provide the sugar, Hops provide the bitterness, Yeast is what ferments the sugars to form alcohol and carbonation (both waste products from the yeast), and Water is the main ingredient and provides a medium for the others to co-exist in. The secret of course is in the proportions of each of the ingredients.

Yes, Hops do give beer its bitterness. Without them the beer would be far too sweet, by current standards, to be drinkable. However, hops weren’t the first choice of ingredients to balance the sweetness of the malt sugars. Things like Spruce Sprigs (you may have seen my post about the historic Scotch Ales), Juniper Berries, Bitter Orange Peel (as in a Belgian Wit), the list goes on. Anyway, somehow someone stumbled upon the hop plant and it stuck! Hops also provide flavor and aroma to the beer.

Ok, here’s a bit of science that is necessary to help explain. Hops are categorized by type, region, and bitterness. The bitterness units most commonly used are % Alpha Acid content. This is then used to determine the quantity of hops the brewer should use to balance the sweetness to create the type of beer that is desired. The calculation actually comes out with an IBU value (International Bitterness Unit) for the batch of beer to be made (I’ll spare you the math, but if interested please let me know and I can get you further information). Rule of thumb is that the higher the % Alpha, and the longer the hop are boiled, the more bitterness it will add to the beer.

So for example let’s say I want to make an American Pale Ale (Sierra Nevada is a great example of this style). I would start out with a grain (malt) build that will give me around 5.5% Alcohol content when fermentation is completed (this would take around 7 lbs of malt extract or 12lbs of malted grain). I would then choose a combination of hops to give the desired flavor, aroma, and bitterness. In this case I’d choose a mixture of 1oz Cascade hops (around 4.5% Alpha), 1oz Kent Goldings hops (around 5% Alpha), and possibly 1oz Willamette hops (around 3.5% Alpha). I’ll boil the batch for 1 hour total so I’d add the Kent Goldings at the beginning of the boil (for bitterness), the Cascade with about 15minutes remaining (for flavor), and the Willamette at the end and then remove from heat to allow them to steep for about 5min (for aroma). This will produce a fairly hoppy beer.

So now to the other part of the question: How do I know what style will be what I like?

Hoppy (sometimes bitter) beer styles would include: American Pale Ale, IPA (India Pale Ale), any style of Pete’s Wicked Ales, Pilsners (Urquel, Stella Artois, Miller Lite, etc.), and American Amber Ales.

Less hoppy (bitter) and sometimes sweet beers include: Belgian Abby or Trappist Ales (Chemay, Leffe, Grimbergen, Orval, etc.), Lagers: (Bud, Molsen), Bock Bier, Oktoberfest Biers, Marzen, Vienna (Dos Equis) English Amber Ales (Bass, John Courage), Swartzbier (Negra Modelo).

Some in between beers (might be bitter, might not): ESB (Extra Special Bitters, Fullers ESB is a good example), English Bitters (the name bitters is a bit of a misnomer), Cream Ales, Wheat Beers (Heffe Weizen, Dunkle Weizen, Belgian Wit-orange peel, not hops, but some can be sort of bitter).

Well, I hope that helps answer the question, and helps give you a few styles to look out for. I also hope that the answer wasn’t too long-winded!

Oh I did promise that I would address the fact that Dos Equis is a Vienna style lager, and why Negra Modelo is a German Swartz bier. It turns out that during the period leading up to WWII there was a lot of persecution taking place over in Europe, not just anti-Semitism, but included anyone not thought to be of “pure blood”. Well it turns out that many of the worlds leading brewers, at the time, were not of “pure blood”. These brewers moved to Mexico and Central/South America to escape persecution (Evidently to escape the German winters too, which is not a bad idea in my opinion!). So anyway once they relocated they started doing what they do best, which was to produce some of the world’s best beers!

Please let me know if you have any further interest in brewing, I’d be more than happy to share my experience and knowledge with you! And remember that the best beer in the world, at any given time, is probably the one you’re holding in your hand!