A Brief History
Dandelion, Burdock Root, Ivy and Heather. Could you imagine these in your beer? Before the discovery of hops, these were all used as a bittering agent. As early as 1079 Germans documented the use of hops in beer and found it to be delightfully bitter. Not only was the beer delicious, but it was found to last longer as Hops are a natural preservative. Further, Hops contribute to a nice dense head as with the famous German Pilsners that are fabled to hold up the weight of a coin.
Current Trend
It is hard to imagine a US beer scene without hops as they have run wild through many breweries. The trend seems to be the more hops the better for many beer drinkers. Dogfish head uses a device to continually add hops through the brewing process. Pliny the Elder is a big IPA that makes generous use of fresh hop cones. Stone has made a brewery name with its big often heavily hopped brews.
So is it a fad, or are hops here to stay?
Hop fans or Hopheads will tell you that they wouldn’t have it any way. Heavily hopped beers tend to gravitate towards the IPA style for the most part though and with all things American I believe our strength is in innovation. Hoppy beers are here to stay I believe but we simply won’t have the plethora of clones running amuck in a few years. That being said, I think it’s about time to pop the top on this Leviathan double IPA.
Cheers!
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