🍺 Why does beer have to wear hopps?

When we look at the hopps, there is a small yellow-gold powder called Lupulin, which is a packed treasure deposit:

Alpha Acids (alpha acids): A substance that gives bitterness.

Essential Oils (Essential Oils): Various aroma-scented substances

🍺 Why does beer have to wear hops? (4 main duties)

In the ancient past, beer did not put hops (the former used a combined herb called Gruit), but after humans discovered hops in the 11th century, hops became the iron rule that all beers had for these four reasons:

1.Cut the sweetness, create a balance (Bitterness)

The beer juice from brewing malt (barley) is chick-sweet like fresh sugar. If we drink it straight, it is very greasy. So the hopps are added to add "bitterness" to the sweetness of the malt, making the beer mellow, easy to drink and refreshing.

2. Create a unique aroma and flavor (Aroma & Flavor)

Hopps are a wonderful plant, because their essential oils can mimic the smell of many things on earth without adding fruit or perfume, such as:

American species (e.g., Citra, Mosaic): gives citrus, lemon, passion fruit, ripe mango (Tropical Fruit)

Traditional European species (e.g., Saaz, Hallertau): Provide herbal-themed scents, dried flowers, spices, or soft soil scents.

3. It is a natural preservative.

In an age when there was no refrigerator, brewing beer to keep it long was very difficult, but brewers found that Hopps had antibacterial properties, especially Gram-positive bacteria, to make sour beer, so Hopps acted as a natural preservative, allowing beer to last longer without waste.

💡 IPA Historical Anecdote: The India Pale Ale (IPA) style was born in an era when the British had to send beer through cruise ships to soldiers in India. The Brewmaster then packed a lot of hopps into a bucket of beer so that the beer would not be boosted during months of travel. The by-product was a beer that smelled so harsh and bitter that it became the current IPA style.

4. Helps create a soft bubble and make the beer clear (Head Retention & Clarity)

The compound in Hopps goes hand in hand with the protein that comes from the base rice, allowing the "beer bubble" to stabilize, soften and collapse slowly. In addition, during brewing, Hopps also precipitate excess protein, making the beer water clearer.