This is Part 4 of The Story of Beer, our journey through the people, ingredients, discoveries, and traditions that put beer in our glass.

Hops have one of those jobs that sounds simple until you realize how much they’re actually doing.

They provide bitterness.

They contribute aroma and flavor.

They help preserve beer.

They even help support the foamy head sitting on top of your pint.

Not bad for a flower.

Why Hops Worked So Well

Beer made from malt naturally has sweetness.

Hops provide bitterness that balances it.

Depending on the variety and how they’re used, hops can also contribute floral, citrus, herbal, and other aromas and flavors.

They also have preservative properties.

That combination made hops extremely useful to brewers, particularly in a world without refrigeration.

Timing Matters

Brewers eventually learned that when hops are added changes what they contribute.

Hops boiled longer generally contribute more bitterness.

Hops added later can preserve more aroma and flavor.

Modern brewers have refined those techniques enormously, but the basic relationship between hops, heat, bitterness, and aroma has been understood through generations of brewing experience.

When Ale and Beer Were Different

The spread of hopped beer also changed language.

When hopped beverages from continental Europe became increasingly popular in England during the late Middle Ages, English speakers began distinguishing between ale and beer.

Ale referred to the older unhopped fermented drink.

Beer referred to the newer hopped version.

Eventually hops won that battle too.

The word beer gradually expanded to cover the broad category of malt based fermented beverages we know today, while ale came to describe a particular family of beer.

A Flower That Changed an Industry

It is difficult to overstate the importance of hops to beer’s development.

They helped beer keep longer, travel farther, and develop flavors that earlier brewers couldn’t achieve in quite the same way.

Eventually they became one of the four ingredients most closely associated with beer.

Water.

Malt.

Yeast.

Hops.

Simple list.

Remarkably complicated results.

Next Pour

If the words ale and beer once meant different things, where did the word beer come from in the first place?

As it turns out, even the name has a story.

Previous | All Chapters | Next