Ask The Beer Geek

Q: What does it mean when I hear that a beer is hoppy?

Susan,
Dallas, TX

Looking up at hops, hanging from the ceiling to dry.

A: Most beer is made from four main ingredients: barley, water, yeast and hops. Hops are a vine-grown plant that add bitterness, floral aroma and flavor to a beer. The difference you may smell and taste between a Budweiser and a gourmet ale, among other things, is largely due to the difference in hop volume and variety.

Measured in IBUs (International Bitterness, or Bittering, Units), beers range from low-hopped pilsners and lagers (15-30 IBU,) to over 100 IBU for an American barleywine. Different hop varieties contain different levels of alpha acid, which is the chemical responsible for their bitterness. And aside from bitterness, the type of hops used, impart a range of flavors and aromas to a beer.

During the brewing process, the unfermented beer is usually boiled for 60 minutes to cook and fuse all the ingredients. The longer hops are boiled in this process, the more bitter they become. With that, most brewers will add some hops at the beginning of the brewing process for pure bitterness, some in the middle for body and flavor and some near the end purely for aroma. Dry hopping is the act of adding hops to the already-fermented beer before bottling, for an extra, full aroma. Some flavor and aromatic notes you may detect from hops are floral, citrussy or grassy.

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