Popular Mechanics Article: 10 Hops that Make American Beer Stand Out

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chrispykid

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Hey guys, I thought that some of you might get a kick out of my latest article for Popular Mechanics, I definitely wouldn't have been able to write this article without learning so much from everyone here, so a big tip of the hat to the community for helping make it happen.

http://digg.com/food_drink/10_Hop_Varieties_That_Make_American_Beer_Stand_Out

Hopefully it'll help educate the average american beer drinker/craft beer enthusiast. At the very least it put some cash in my pocket to cover a few batches. :rockin:
 
Airborneguy said:
Great little article! I actually might try Simcoe for the first time because of it!
Click to expand...

Thanks. I couldn't agree more than with what Shane of Sixpoint had to say about Simcoe and Righteous Rye and Bengali Tiger are both fantastic commercial examples.


If you're looking for a homebrew recpipe that showcases the greatness that is Simcoe you can't do much better than YooperBrew's clone of Dogfish Head 60 Minute Pale Ale. I wouldn't say my execution was "cloned" but the flavor profile was in the ballpark and the homebrew version was even better to my taste:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f69/dogfish-head-60-minute-clone-ag-extract-25709/
 
Cool article! Thanks for posting it!

BTW, yooper's DFH 60 min IPA and her ruination clone are the next 2 brews on my list. Both showcase hops from the article. I can't wait!!
 
Interesting topic to think about, many thanks for writing it--I'm not sure I agree with the choices, but it's a great topic of discussion!

Cluster is the grandfather of all the truly American hops, and for 200 years was the biggest game in town; the majority of American beers throughout history came to prominence using it. Without that, there is no American beer.

Northern Brewer isn't American, but it's what makes the most uniquely American beer--and some would argue the only truly original American style of beer--stand out. And that beer is also the impetus for the entire modern craft brewing movement.

Picking a flavor of the year like Citra (a great hop, but not one of the ones that's put American brewing in the place it is today) is questionable to me.

Really, Cascade might be the only hop I would classify as more important as a defining feature of American craft brewing (something that helped make it stand out, and move away from the shadow of European brewing) than Cluster and Northern Brewer.
 
SumnerH said:
Interesting topic to think about, many thanks for writing it--I'm not sure I agree with the choices, but it's a great topic of discussion!

Cluster is the grandfather of all the truly American hops, and for 200 years was the biggest game in town; the majority of American beers throughout history came to prominence using it. Without that, there is no American beer.

Northern Brewer isn't American, but it's what makes the most uniquely American beer--and some would argue the only truly original American style of beer--stand out. And that beer is also the impetus for the entire modern craft brewing movement.

Picking a flavor of the year like Citra (a great hop, but not one of the ones that's put American brewing in the place it is today) is questionable to me.

Really, Cascade might be the only hop I would classify as more important as a defining feature of American craft brewing (something that helped make it stand out, and move away from the shadow of European brewing) than Cluster and Northern Brewer.
Click to expand...

You raise some fair points, but as you point out Northern Brewer isn't an American hop so it doesn't fit into the general premise of my article. I could have included Cluster, but my assignment was to focus more on American craft beers and with a lineage at least 200 years old Cluster represents more of the establishment beers that the craft beer industry was breaking away from than the experimental style that makes them what they are today.
 

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