Beer without hops?

I don't think it's 100% accurate to say that it isn't beer if it doesn't have hops. In the middle ages, English law distinguished "beers" and "ales" on the basis of hops. It was illegal to make ale with hops, and in fact for a long time it was illegal for a single brewer to make both ales and beers. As many mentioned, ales were often (but not always) made with other spices and bittering agents, called "gruit."

This is one option that has been thoroughly discussed in this thread.

But there is another option. Just make the beer without hops! It wouldn't pass the Reinheitsgebot, so if it really bothers you call it a barleywine or something, but it is doable. I have had such a drink and found it decent. You'll have to play around with recipes and styles, but off the top of my head I would go for something rich and high alcohol, either a malty bock style beer or else something thick and toasty like a stout or porter. Just seems like that would work best to me.

Whatever you do (did?) please update and let future generations know how it turned out!

IrishJew said:

I don't think it's 100% accurate to say that it isn't beer if it doesn't have hops. In the middle ages, English law distinguished "beers" and "ales" on the basis of hops. It was illegal to make ale with hops, and in fact for a long time it was illegal for a single brewer to make both ales and beers. As many mentioned, ales were often (but not always) made with other spices and bittering agents, called "gruit."

This is one option that has been thoroughly discussed in this thread.

But there is another option. Just make the beer without hops! It wouldn't pass the Reinheitsgebot, so if it really bothers you call it a barleywine or something, but it is doable. I have had such a drink and found it decent. You'll have to play around with recipes and styles, but off the top of my head I would go for something rich and high alcohol, either a malty bock style beer or else something thick and toasty like a stout or porter. Just seems like that would work best to me.

Whatever you do (did?) please update and let future generations know how it turned out!

Click to expand...

I recently made an extract brew without hops, I usually find hops to be too bitter. I really have no idea what I am doing, I fermented at 75-80 degrees fahrenheit for a week lol, so much ethyl hexanoate and diacetyl, I was hoping for isoamyl acetate and diacetyl but we take what we can get, maybe I will switch yeast strains. It does not taste like any beer I have had, but calling it fermented grain drink seems a bit generic.

I can drink the stuff all day but it is a bit strong, and the fruit flies keep landing in my glass lol! :fro:

Anyway, I plan to continue brewing without hops, I am planning on a hefeweizen using ginger, coriander, and orange peel, now if I can only figure out how to keep the fermentation temp a bit lower.

Firstly, allow me to say to all the people advocating that people sneak hops to someone who says they are allergic to hops is a horrible, terrible idea. Is it possible that she's not actually allergic and the headaches are caused by something else (like the booze itself or a grain, etc)? yes, but to deceitfully sneak someone something they've told you they're allergic to is not only immoral, but also could make you liable in a lawsuit if something bad happened (what happens if she gets more hops than the past and has to be hospitalized?)

Secondly, the only way she would know she's allergic to hops is if she tried a beer and found the symptom...that's how she knows the beer is good, but she reacts to it poorly.

Thirdly, she has probably had some other form of booze and NOT gotten the headaches, she's probably also had bread and not had the headaches. so it's not the yeast or booze (that's in other booze, and yeast is in bread) and it's not the grain (that's in the bread).

So, she (probably) deduced that she is, in fact, reacting to the hops. As a biologist, I am the first to say that many people claim allergy when it's not actually allergy. However, whether it's officially an allergy or not doesn't really matter. The problem is that she gets headaches when she drinks beer and not other booze or eats bread, so it's probably the hops.

Finally, beer has been around a lot longer than when hops dominated the market. yes, it's often called gruit, but that term (IMO) should be reserved for brews made to mimic 'ye olde' styles. It's perfectly reasonable (again, IMO), to bitter and flavor your beer with vegetals other than hops. I've been wanting to try nutmeg (the ancient Egyptian method), green and/or black teas, pine tips, juniper, even things like oregano and cardamom.

soap box over, but I hope I'll never see people trying to sneak foodstuffs to people who have announced allergies (I know that's not what the OP wanted to do, thank you!)