High on Hops: Experimental Hop Varieties

By Lee Heidel Published December 4, 2015

Hops, Grow your own hops — Image used with permission by copyright holder

After you’ve sampled enough beer, you start to pay close attention to things like hops.

For drinkers consumed with getting the most hop bite possible, researching International Bitterness Units (IBUs) becomes a religion. That’s an easy enough road to travel. But for those looking to understand the more subtle aromatic or flavor profiles available from hops, knowing the individual hop varietal names becomes important.

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The old standbys of Willamette, Cascade and Saaz are still around, each providing mild bases for all-purpose brewing. As palates for more extreme flavors have grown, the rise of new, trendy hops like Citra, Galaxy and Falconer’s Flight have come to the fore. But even these fairly recent hop creations are already being edged out by experimental hops so new they don’t even have proper names yet.

Hop Breeding Company is making many of these new strains available directly to home brewers and commercial breweries alike. Recognized by its use of the “HBC” prefix, these hops are re-creating favorite varieties with new twists and forging new profiles. “HBC 342” is a dual usage hop that addresses aroma and flavor by infusing citrus notes like melon and mango.

In the United Kingdom, Charles Faram Hop Merchants is similarly looking to crack the code on new hop creations. Named using the “CF” prefix, these hops are bringing the stalwart hop producer, in business since 1865, into the modern age. CF103 (or Duchess) is prominently showcased in Eden Brewery’s Antifreeze for floral, pepper and spicy notes.

Sierra Nevada has been bringing experimental hops to the masses with its Harvest : Newly Developed Hop IPA. This beer allows the seasoned craft brewery to test out fresh flavors and hopping techniques against a large sample group. The hops in this release, listed only as 472, 05256, 431, and 06300 bring in a multitude of complementary sensations such as cedar, coconut, chocolate and orange.

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Deschutes’ Hop Henge IPA utilizes newcomers Millennium, Mandarina Bavaria and still-numbered hops into a brew brimming with fleshy orange sweetness, grapefruit bitterness and a cracker-malt base.

As with any new endeavor, trial and error will play in to whether any of these new, experimental hop varieties will become mainstream. But with the continued growth in craft beer, differentiating brews by use of new hops will be a big trend as breweries attempt to push the flavor envelope.

Topics

Liquor, Beer, Wine & Drinks

Lee Heidel is the managing editor of Brew/Drink/Run, a website and podcast that promotes brewing your own beer, consuming the…

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The science of high-altitude drinking
Frankly, there’s not a lot of good research out there on the topic. Back in the 1930s, freshly post-Prohibition America was thirsty again and at least a few people were asking the question. A Columbia University psychologist named R.A. McFarland looked into it, concluding roughly that at altitudes of 10,000 feet above sea level or higher, two to three drinks is more like having four to five drinks for low-altitude people.
But other studies suggest the body deals with alcohol the same, regardless of how high up one is. Researchers in alpine Europe looked into how beer was processed by the human body at sea level versus high up in the mountains at roughly 10,000 feet. The results? No difference, at least in terms of blood-alcohol content.
It’s a topic of some discussion within the aviation world. In fact, it’s easy to imagine pilots enjoying a Mai Tai pre-takeoff during the party-on-the-plane era of 1960s and 1970s. You know, the golden era of flying, when Pan-Am ran the show, people dressed to the nines (and wouldn’t even think about reaching for their Juicy-brand sweatpants) for flights, and smoked and drank excessively in the cabin. But studies in this regard, too, generally point to zero impact on the part of elevation.
Physiologically, it’s all about oxygen. Alcohol works its way through the bloodstream and tweaks hemoglobin’s ability to absorb oxygen. In the thinner air of higher locales, where there’s less oxygen present, it’s easier to feel something akin to tipsy (a little light-headed, dizzy, etc.). Alcohol’s effects aren’t magnified so much as that you’re simply imbibing in an environment with less of something you so vitally need — oxygen.
Which is to say altitude sickness exists and is thrown unfairly into the alcohol conversation. This condition is common enough that it’s estimated to affect some 200,000 Americans per year. Also called acute mountain sickness, it’s the physical distress some feel when higher, where oxygen levels are lower. Generally, symptoms include headache, nausea, and shortness of breath. Sound mostly like a hangover?
In the thinner air of higher locales, where there’s less oxygen present, it’s easier to feel something akin to tipsy.

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