More than just a taste-maker
HOPS
4 In almost all breweries in the world hops always form
part of the recipe for making beer. Hops are famed for
the taste they give. But they do a lot more for the beer.
Hops play the starring role in the final instalment of our
series on ingredients.
The hop is a dioecious plant,
which means that the male and
female organs occur in separ
ate plants. The male plants with their
fluffy flowers are not interesting for
beer brewers (though some British
brewers do use them). What are
important are the cone-shaped flowers
with their fleshy protective leaves
which grow on the female plants: the
hop cones.
These are the hop cones. They
contain lupulin grains, hop
oil and - in the protective lea f
lets - tanning agents.
In the spring the hop plant starts to
send out shoots. These shoots are
trained upwards along lengthy wires.
In August and September the hop
cones are picked. The grains of lupulin
in the hop cones are the vital ingre
dients in the making of beer. These
grains contain bitter hop substances
which give the beer its bitter taste. In
addition, the bitter substances give
micro-organisms less chance of
developing and increase the beer's
keeping properties.
The protective leaflets around the
hop cones also play a useful role dur
ing the brewing process. These small
leaves contain tanning agents which
bind together with proteins. This helps
to improve the clarity of the beer.
Inexplicable
As a basic ingredient for beer, hops
are not something only discovered in
recent decades. Even in ancient times
various substances were added to beer
to give it a better taste. The Israelites
were the ones who found out that
adding hops to beer improved its taste.
For inexplicable reasons, however, the
hop recipe was lost and it took until the
eighth century before hops were again
used in Europe as an ingredient in
brewing beer.
Sophisticated
For centuries brewers used hops
for their beer without knowing exactly
what functions the hops performed.
Differences in quality between the
various hop harvests were accepted as
a matter of course, as was the fast dete
rioration in hop quality during stor
age.
The big brewers, including
Heineken, were not willing to accept
this and decided to use hop extract
because this gives a better guarantee
that the hop quality will be maintained
throughout the year. The bitter sub
stances, hop oil (which gives the beer
its aroma) and tanning agents are
extracted from the hop cones and
placed in cold storage in airtight
drums.
Heineken breweries also use com
pressed hops in the form of hop pellets.
The advantages of hop extract and
hermetically sealed hop pellets are
clear: they give a better guarantee of
the constant high quality of the hops.
Boiled
But how are the hops actually used
during the brewing process? The hops
are added to the boiling wort (a mix-
THE WORLD OF HEINEKEN
