othellomcbane
Well-Known Member
I was contemplating the whole relationship between hops and sour microbes in my head the other day, and the process Belgian brewers use with aged hops. I realized that there are still a few things I don't really understand.
From my understanding, the main issue with adding a bunch of hops to a sour beer is that bitterness and sourness do not taste good together. Makes sense. Plus, lacto and other friendly sour microbes don't like high IBUs. Okay. But here's where I realized there are some gaps in my knowledge.
Huge quantities of aged hops are added to lambic / geuze at the beginning of a long boil, but as these hops are aged, they do not contribute significant IBUs. So they do not act as preservatives against lacto / pedio, but apparently, they still act as preservatives to other nasty things floating around in the air. Seemingly lacto/pedio doesn't like the bitterness, but don't mind the hops themselves.
It's basically accepted that we homebrewers don't need to add huge quantities of aged hops when brewing sour beer so long as we're directly inoculating the wort and not leaving it out for spontaneous fermentation. We're already "infecting" our beer and don't need the boost of extra protection. So here is my main question: why go out of your way to add a carefully calibrated amount of low AA hops at the beginning of the boil? Why not add an ounce of flavorful hops near the end of the boil, when they'll contribute (if anything), some fruity flavor, but no worrysome bitterness?
Thoughts? Am I missing anything?
From my understanding, the main issue with adding a bunch of hops to a sour beer is that bitterness and sourness do not taste good together. Makes sense. Plus, lacto and other friendly sour microbes don't like high IBUs. Okay. But here's where I realized there are some gaps in my knowledge.
Huge quantities of aged hops are added to lambic / geuze at the beginning of a long boil, but as these hops are aged, they do not contribute significant IBUs. So they do not act as preservatives against lacto / pedio, but apparently, they still act as preservatives to other nasty things floating around in the air. Seemingly lacto/pedio doesn't like the bitterness, but don't mind the hops themselves.
It's basically accepted that we homebrewers don't need to add huge quantities of aged hops when brewing sour beer so long as we're directly inoculating the wort and not leaving it out for spontaneous fermentation. We're already "infecting" our beer and don't need the boost of extra protection. So here is my main question: why go out of your way to add a carefully calibrated amount of low AA hops at the beginning of the boil? Why not add an ounce of flavorful hops near the end of the boil, when they'll contribute (if anything), some fruity flavor, but no worrysome bitterness?
Thoughts? Am I missing anything?