An Ode to the Un-Hopped
I keep my ear to the ground in my town, regarding openings of new eateries, distilleries, breweries, etc.
I’m an adventurous eater and drinker, so I’m always on the lookout for something new.
And oh boy, is there a new brewery in town. A brewery… that doesn’t use hops in any of their beers.
I’ll just let that sink in.
No hops.
Zilch. Nada. Nonezo.
First question that popped into my head was, “is that even beer?” And with the door open, a tidal wave of related questions zoomed through, one by one.
So let’s look into it!
What makes “beer” beer? Why do we use hops in the first place? What else can be used? And can it be considered beer if no hops are used?
A Very Hoppy History
If you’ve been following along with my blogs, you know I gotta start with some history and take a look back at why we currently do what we do today.
And what is it that we’re doing today? Using hops, in every beer. Even if you’re not a “hoppy beer” drinker, I 99.9% guarantee you that the beer you drink has hops in it. (The .1% is if you’re the person who happened to find and visit this new brewery before me!)
Turns out, the reason why most (we’re going broad with this assumption here) brewers use hops and barley in their beer because that is what was dictated by a law passed in Bavaria way back in 1516.
This is called the Reinheitsgebot Law and was a regulation limiting the ingredients in beer to: water, barley, and hops (yeast was considered a “fixture” of brewing, not an ingredient).
The original purpose was to prevent price competition with bakers for wheat and rye, so actually had very little to do with the “hops” portion of the ingredient list.
The most wild part is that a version of this regulation still exists today. The wording has shifted over the years and brewers can get exceptions (for instance, gluten-free beer can still be labeled “beer”), but in essence, the law is the same.
I would like to point out that this regulation was really only law in Germany. The U.S. never had a law stating that brewers had to include hops in beer. But it never really had to, as hop production and use in the U.S. was just always kind of a thing. Hops were imported by Dutch and English settlers as far back as the early 17th century.
Tasty & Functional
Let’s go back even further though. Even before it was regulation, why do we use hops in beer?
First, the most apparent reason is the bittering quality hops adds to the drink. It’s flavor and aroma, people! Pure and simple.
You might be wondering, “what does this hop-less beer even taste like, then?” Well, honestly it depends on what other herbs are used to bitter or flavor the beer. In general though, the beer will be more sweet and much more malty than you are used to. Then, it could have floral overtones, ginger notes, spruce hints, really just name any other herb or plant and it could possibly taste like that.
Second, hop resins are actually naturally antimicrobial! This was a cool new fact, to me. Hops have inherit preservative qualities that help keep spoiling bacteria away during the fermentation process. This particular use came in very handy in the late 1700s when British brewers learned to increase the hops for beers that were being shipped around the world to colonies.
A Beer Minus Hops Is A…
So, we’re back to the very first question: is it a beer if it doesn’t have hops?
Legally, yes.
However, die-hards have strong opinions on this. So, of course a new-ish term has been coined for beer brewed without hops; it is now referred to as Gruit. This is actually the old-school (like, 13th century old school) name for a herb mixture used to bitter and flavor beer before hops become a popular ingredient, and it’s now been colloquially adopted as the name for purposefully un-hopped beer.
Weekly Adventure
While this no-hop beer was news to me, there are actually a few easily found hop-less beers out there on the market. So if you’re not in Madison, and thus can’t go visit the new brewery that spiked this whole blog post, I’d recommend taking a look at this list of hop-less beers. See if you can’t find one or two at your local store and try them out!
Cheers,
Molly
References
https://beercreation.com/brew-beer-without-hops/
https://homebrewadvice.com/what-beer-tastes-like-without-hops
https://draftmag.com/beer-without-hops/#FAQ
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot
https://www.usahops.org/enthusiasts/brewing.html
https://sierranevada.com/blog/our-beer/what-are-hops/
https://vinepair.com/beer-101/the-role-of-hops-in-beer/
https://www.allagash.com/blog/beer-fundamentals-what-are-hops/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hop_production_in_the_United_States