Alternative or Replacement for Hops?

[torilen]

I finally got around to making my own beer. It's not really that it is more cost efficient - it is not. I am hoping to making something for my own pallet...something I like drinking a lot.

I really do not like hops. As I understand it, beer is not considered beer without hops, right? Or is that just according to rules by regulatory agencies...like in Belgium/Germany/etc?

Anyhow...getting to my question. Something I have found through reading and researching recipes. early English and colonial beers used a lot of spices...back before hops were widely available and widely used. As such...I have noticed that rosemary, thyme, and sage could offer some of the similarities of hops - bitterness and pine flavors.

Does anyone have any useful information on using regular spices to replace the use (at least partially) of hops?

One other last thought - I have read that hops offer some sort of anti-bacterial or anti-fungal to beer. Is this true? And if so...how much?

 

[Qhrumphf]

The legal definitions of "beer" are a completely complicated scenario, not worth discussing. It may or may not require hops depending on which regulatory body you're talking about. In Germany, I believe hops are required. In the US, I don't think "Beer" requires hops legally.

However, what you're talking about is the "Ancient" stuff that, again depending on who you're asking may or may not be called "Ale". One of the historical distinctions (that again depend on the source, location, time, and who you ask), "beer" was hopped and "ale" wasn't. Of course that's not the case today.

But search "Gruit". That'll bring to you to a wide variety of unhopped ales.

But yes, you can absolutely brew without hops. Whether or not you want to call it beer is up to you. You're not selling it, so the legal requirements don't really matter.

Alternatively, if you're only wary of hop flavor/aroma, and not bitterness, well there's a wealth of beers where hops are only used for bitterness, with minimal (if any) flavor or aroma contribution.

Yes, it's true that hops are anti-microbial. But I don't think the facet is particularly well understood. When brewing sours, you'll find that higher hop content results in reduced/slower souring. Lambic brewers use aged hops where there's virtually no bitterness or flavor/aroma obtained, strictly because the anti-microbial elements seem to help keep the enteric bacteria (that can be introduced during spontaneous fermentation) at bay, but I think that's ultimately more mysticism than anything else.

 

[55x11]

I finally got around to making my own beer. It's not really that it is more cost efficient - it is not. I am hoping to making something for my own pallet...something I like drinking a lot.

I really do not like hops. As I understand it, beer is not considered beer without hops, right? Or is that just according to rules by regulatory agencies...like in Belgium/Germany/etc?

Anyhow...getting to my question. Something I have found through reading and researching recipes. early English and colonial beers used a lot of spices...back before hops were widely available and widely used. As such...I have noticed that rosemary, thyme, and sage could offer some of the similarities of hops - bitterness and pine flavors.

Does anyone have any useful information on using regular spices to replace the use (at least partially) of hops?

One other last thought - I have read that hops offer some sort of anti-bacterial or anti-fungal to beer. Is this true? And if so...how much?

google "gruit". I never tried it, but there is good reason why hops are used. Preservative property (hop oils inhibit a lot of bacteria - e.g. lactobacillus), but they also balance the sweet taste of residual sugars.

When you say you don't like the hops - did you try lightly hopped beers, at say 15-20 IBU? Or do you mean you don't like bitterness in super-hopped beers, like IPAs and Double-IPAs etc.?

 

[k1ngl1ves]

Try using half an ounce of a more neutral hop (maybe Nugget) at the start of the boil for an easy going gravity 5g batch. No late additions. Very little to no hop taste, but you'll get some of that balance that the beer needs. I'll make something like this a few times a year for my Coors Light friends. The keg will be gone in a night... then I offer them some lighter APA's to slowly turn them to the Hop Side. Muahahahahahah!


I got into homebrewing to make Belgians, and wasn't a big hop guy. I hated IPA's.

Fast forward almost 10 years... of my 6 taps right now; 2 IPA's, 2 APA's, 1 Cherry Cider, 1 DIPA. No Belgians. Lol!


The love for hops slowly grows, and there's no turning back.

 

[torilen]

Well - it is really the bitterness of hops that I do not like so much. The floral touches and the pine notes and aroma I'm good with - in fact, I like those in some cases. What I said above...about normal spices adding bitterness...it is a different bitter flavor that they add (based on what I know of using them in cooking, anyhow).

As for using hops - I started out stating I finally got around to brewing my first beer. It is a nice dark beer...should be a higher ABV (est. around at least 9%+)...1 gallon batch. I am using simcoe hops (I'll explain that in a minute). I bought pellet hops...and honestly, only put maybe 8-10 pellets in at the start, and another 4-6 in the last 10 minutes. I knew I should've left out that last introduction...but from what I understand, the late addition is what adds the floral and aroma, and I wanted that part of the hops. Maybe I should not have put them in at the start?

Now - why am I using simcoe? One beer that I do actually like that has a good hoppy flavor is Weyerbacher Quad. They use simcoe hops in that one, and I have gotten used to that particular hop flavor in that particular beer. In fact...I was trying to emulate that beer slightly with this first brew. Am I close...maybe...we'll see when it is finished fermenting. It's been going for a full 24 hours, and so far it has a good taste to it...just a touch strong on the hops.

Anyhow - I'll check out gruit recipes, and see what I can find. Thanks

 

[Qhrumphf]

Lots of beers you can brew without high bitterness. But ultimately you'll need bitterness of some form in your beer, whether that's from herbs or hops.

 

[dmtaylor]

Beer without hops is still beer if you ask me. Only the Germans are specific in requiring hops. In medieval Europe, gruit herbs were often used. I have brewed my own gruit ales several times. Of the gruit herbs, the most useful and tasty and closest to hops in its qualities is sweet gale, a.k.a., bog myrtle. Use it in the same amounts and ways as hops if you want to try something different. Just.....

Be aware that any beer without hops is almost guaranteed to taste tart or sour. Hops are such a superior preservative that a little hops might still be desirable in any beer, even in a gruit ale, just to prevent the inevitable tartness that seems to come naturally from fermentation of a sweet unhopped wort. If there are other herbs that prevent this tartness, I haven't figured out which ones they are yet.

 

[Lefou]

I was never a big fan of strongly-hopped beer, but I do love the smell. It's one of the reasons why I got into BYO, because a lot of the commercial brews I've disliked were bitter to me.
Taste is subjective, what's good for you might not be good to me ... and that's cool because alternatives are out there.

I tend to go easy on the bittering and use low AA type hops. Works for me.

 

[torilen]

dmtaylor - that's what really makes me feel torn now. With all the reading I've done, I now know that deer needs those hops in order to stay good, basically. Even with spectacular sanitation, it looks like beer will start to go south pretty quickly.
Ah well - I've gotten used to the taste of one hop - I guess I can work myself up to others. And I'll start looking for those neutral flavored ones...someone suggested Nugget, I think?

 

[dmtaylor]

dmtaylor - that's what really makes me feel torn now. With all the reading I've done, I now know that deer needs those hops in order to stay good, basically. Even with spectacular sanitation, it looks like beer will start to go south pretty quickly.
Ah well - I've gotten used to the taste of one hop - I guess I can work myself up to others. And I'll start looking for those neutral flavored ones...someone suggested Nugget, I think?

Nugget is not neutral. Glacier is just about the most bland hop I have ever experienced. Goldings also. Maybe try a small shot of those for bittering only if you want the most neutral and almost flavorless character in the final beer.

 

[JKaranka]

Try something like a dark mild with ~15 IBU of just bittering hops. If you are going the gruit route, try a few commercial ones before you brew your own! You are replacing the typical 'beer' type hop bitterness for more 'medicinal' and 'herbal' flavours.

 

[DromJohn]

I now know that deer needs those hops in order to stay good, basically.

Change of topic, first you were talking about hops in beer, now growing hops for deer.

I have brewed three gruits. One with hawthorn berry, one with chrysanthemum, one with annatto/cocoa nibs/cocoa powder. All three aged well, with no sourness to speak of.

Meanwhile, I love hops.

 

[Qhrumphf]

Nugget is not neutral. Glacier is just about the most bland hop I have ever experienced. Goldings also. Maybe try a small shot of those for bittering only if you want the most neutral and almost flavorless character in the final beer.

Agreed Nugget is not neutral. Nugget is awful and should never be used in beer. Ok, maybe that's just my opinion.

I've never used Glacier, so no opinion there. But you could try Magnum, which is the most neutral bittering hop I've used. Or, if you like the piny character of Simcoe, you could try bittering with Chinook. It'll carry over a little character into flavor or aroma even with just a bittering addition.

Goldings by are are not bland. US Goldings are a waste of hops, but Kent Goldings, Whitbread Goldings, and Styrian Goldings are wonderful flavor and aroma hops. If you're not getting character out of them, sorry mate but you're using em wrong.