June 15, 2017 @ 12:49 pm
Big Rick Hardly Strictly Wine Blog
What makes a brew “hoppy”? Flowers, believe it or not.
Hops, one of beer’s primary ingredients (along with malt, water, and yeast), are the blossoms of the Humulus lupulus plant. Used as a bittering agent and preservative, hops are now bred and cultivated to contribute a myriad of flavors at various stages of the brewing process. But it’s early summer in the northern hemisphere: Mother Nature has a bounty of non-hop flowers to offer right now. And plenty of global brewers are taking advantage to make beer that is even more seasonally land-connected.