nikkuchan
Well-Known Member
with craft brew booming over the last few years, I have been seeing that many beers will list the hops used on the beer bottles. That's nice and all, but reading that only made me wonder: "How many of the people buying this actually know what the heck it means?" When did beer culture get to the point where someone can mention types of hops like everyone knows what they're talking about? It seems kind of pretentious, like the beer version of cork-smelling. I can't imagine anyone but a very experienced homebrew to be so intimate with hops where they can recall the tastes and characteristics just by hearing a name, or know just what a recipe needs, like a master chef does when cooking. How does one develop such a vast catalog in their head?
I have been brewing for years, and I couldn't tell one hop from another. Most recipes use at least 2 different kinds, so I can never pick out which hops add what to the beer. The only way I can imagine someone could become an expert on hops is if they repeatedly make the same beer with a different hops each time in order to do a taste test, and that would take a lot of time and effort. How many people have gone this far (I'd like to, personally, but I do have the space or equipment to do such an experiment)? And for the people here who do know hops, how long did it take and what did you do to get there?
I have been brewing for years, and I couldn't tell one hop from another. Most recipes use at least 2 different kinds, so I can never pick out which hops add what to the beer. The only way I can imagine someone could become an expert on hops is if they repeatedly make the same beer with a different hops each time in order to do a taste test, and that would take a lot of time and effort. How many people have gone this far (I'd like to, personally, but I do have the space or equipment to do such an experiment)? And for the people here who do know hops, how long did it take and what did you do to get there?