Hops in Brewing

In the context of beer brewing, hops are the cones that the female Humulus Lupulus plant produces. They are used in varying degrees in almost all types of beer, providing it with flavor, aroma, and bitterness. Hops can also act as a preservative due to their high alpha acid content. This is how the IPA style of beer came to be.

The flavors and aromas that hops produce are often described as "floral", "herbal", "grassy", "pine-like", or "citrus." There are hundreds of varieties hops, all of which produce different flavors and aromas. They are typically added to beer during the brewing process by boiling them or by "dry-hopping", adding unboiled hopes to a cooled wort. The amount of time that they are boiled greatly affects the characteristics that they impart on the finished beer.

The Hop Schedule refers to amount and timing of the hop additions during the brewing process. Typically there are three hop additions (this is where the somewhat misleading Miller Lite slogan "Triple Hops Brewed" comes from), bittering, flavoring, and aroma, although there can be more. The less hops are boiled, the more aroma they produce; the more they are boiled, the more bitterness they impart.

The first hop addition is for the "bittering" hops. They are usually boiled for about 60 minutes. When hops are boiled this long they produce little flavor and almost no aroma.

The second addition is for the "flavoring" hops. The boiling time of these hops is between 20 and 40 minutes. This allows the floral and citrus hop flavors to come out while producing little aroma.

The final hop addition is when the "aroma" hops are added. They are usually boiled for 5 minutes or less. This produce almost no bitterness or flavor but a lot of the floral, piny aroma that hops are known for.