Alternative bittering to hops?

[Sttifyd35]

Hi, my girlfriend is allergic to hops and there are quite a few beers that she would love if she could drink them. Is there anything i can use in place of the hops?

 

[clone63]

Gruit: Beer made without hops. Bog myrtle, sweet gale, yarrow, lavender, rosemary, heather, juniper, spruce, all the common gruit herbs. Mind you, it wont taste like typical beer. Can range from medicinal to floral to fruity and beyond. Lots of recipes out there.
There is also isomerized hop extract you can buy... depending what it is about the hops she's allergic to, it could be an option.. But maybe too unpleasant to consider risking it without finding out more about it.

 

[madscientist451]

I just made a grapefruit honey ale, it uses grapefruit peels that are oven roasted (dried) and then added to the boil. It also used 1.5 oz of hops for 5 gallons though.
If she is allergic to hops, I would suggest cider, mead, (maybe try the lower alcohol "craft mead" or hydromel) and wine.
Can she tolerate any amount of hops? There are many styles of beer that are lightly hopped.
Gruit is a brewed beverage that is similar to beer, but instead of hops, herbs are used:

http://homebrewexchange.net/resources/gruit_no_hop_herbal_ales

 

[bajaedition]

How about a hard lemonade or something such as that, girls go gaga over them and you can have your beer

 

[ong]

Gentian seems like it would be a pretty good alternative. I've been using it in some homemade bitters lately. It won't replace the hop "nose," just the 60-minute bittering.

 

[Sttifyd35]

Yeah she drinks hard ciders, hard lemonade, etc... already. I was just trying to see if there was anything remotely close.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Needles taken from fresh spring spruce tips probably come the closest to hops. I believe this was the bittering method used by the early pioneers. I've never tried it though, and I don't know the methods to employ, or if there are any safety (health) concerns.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Captain Cook's method for making spruce beer:
http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-ShoSout-t1-back-d1-d6.html

How spruce beer became the first beer brewed in Oregon:
http://www.wweek.com/bars/2016/06/07/how-spruce-beer-became-the-very-first-beer-brewed-in-oregon/

A modern commercial beer made with only two ingredients, organic 2-row malt and spruce tips:
http://www.pawsforbeer.com/no-hops-fort-george-brewery-astoria-oregon/
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-WjnksMolQ[/ame]

 

[khannon]

You could always try the other route an find a girlfriend that isn't allergic to hops...

 

[Morrey]

LOL, she must be a keeper for sure!

I wrote a newspaper article last year after interviewing a home brewer who uses collard greens for his alternative bittering agent. He was a naturalist, a forager for his food type of guy and very interesting. I didn't have the chance to taste a collard "Hopped" beer, but heck you gotta do what you gotta do.

 

[GHBWNY]

Hi, my girlfriend is allergic to hops and there are quite a few beers that she would love if she could drink them. Is there anything i can use in place of the hops?

Just curious, how does she know she's allergic to hops? Reason I ask is that my daughter has had symptoms that make her think she is allergic to hops. A couple hours after having a very hoppy beer, headache, nausea, etc.. No other alcoholic drink does it, nor do even mildly-hoppy beers (hefes, wits, etc.), so it's not the alcohol, barley, wheat, gluten, etc..

 

[andrewmaixner]

I tasted an excellent unhopped wild beer bittered with https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glechoma_hederacea (Creeping Charlie) at a beerfest last year. more info on using it:
http://davebonta.com/2012/06/ground-ivy-gruit-ale/
https://beersforbreakfast.wordpress.com/2013/09/03/creeping-charlie-13/

 

[Morrey]

Just curious, how does she know she's allergic to hops? Reason I ask is that my daughter has had symptoms that make her think she is allergic to hops. A couple hours after having a very hoppy beer, headache, nausea, etc.. No other alcoholic drink does it, nor do even mildly-hoppy beers (hefes, wits, etc.), so it's not the alcohol, barley, wheat, gluten, etc..

You make a good point and pose a solid question.

I had a buddy who started sneezing, eyes watering, etc every time he drank a beer. He went to an ENT who determined he had a yeast allergy and put him on Flonase nasal spray which relieved the symptoms.

 

[kristiismean]

some Gose don't use hops....

just a thought.

 

[Sttifyd35]

Yeah its definitely the hops unfortunately. She was told it was. She drank a beer years ago and got all disoriented and actually blacked out for an entire day. Her father also has a slight allergy to hops as well. After doing research its actually more common than i thought. Now i have juniper berries on hand at my house and multiple other spices. Corriander, rosemary, etc... Now i see you say some dont hop the beers at all. How would that taste. You would obviously have to flavor the beer to your liking right?

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

I wonder if we have any forum members who have made spruce tip hopped beer, and will provide comment.

 

[Morrey]

some Gose don't use hops....

just a thought.

kristiismean has a darn good option. If you like sour beers at all, this is a strong candidate for a no hopped beer. The sour notes rule the roost with this one and you can skip hops...no biggie.

 

[clone63]

I've tried a spruce tip amber from fresh tips a few years ago... 30g in a 4gal batch but I believe a fatal flaw was boiled the spruce in water before adding the extract, not IN the extract. Looking back, I don't know why I did that but it didn't help with bitterness much. It was kinda soda-y. The aroma and mild flavour was there but go for truly fresh tips, full boil, and more than 30g is my opinion. I'm sure there's some solid recipes out there (that I should have followed).

I have drank but not made juniper beer, gooseberry stout, lavender gruit, myrtle gruit, lemon balm PA.. They all have their own flavour, you'd want to google and pick one that sounds suitable. Personally like juniper beers, so prost!

I've heard of people doing a dry irish stout without hops, just roasted barley as the bittering factor.
Just tossing it out there, I've seen: dandelion, chamomile, cat nip, lemon grass, bergamot, oregano, ginger (ginger beer..)

 

[Sttifyd35]

I may try juniper berries in a gallon batch. Just dont want to use too many. You know what i mean?

 

[Mainer]

I've heard good things about heather as an alternative.
Mugwort, which grows wild in most of the US, is also supposed to have a nice mellow bitterness and an anise-flower-hay flavor that has been compared favorably to some of the low-alpha European noble hops.

 

[5mooth0perator]

I like hops in both, but root beers and ginger ales have lots of room for different ingredients. You can use dandelion root or wild cherry bark.

I wonder what it is in the hops that is causing the allergy, are their varieties that don't produce the allergen.

 

[5mooth0perator]

Also, I just remembered some research I did a while ago. Chinese or Indian bitter melon can be used as a bittering agent. That is still on my todo list to try. There are even commercial brews with bitter melon as the bittering agent in China and Japan. I remembered it as I was eating some off the grill.

 

[xwass]

Maybe try bittering the beer with tea leaves. I have had beers with tea "infused" or included in the recipe, but they all had hops also to my knowledge.

I have left green tea steeping too long (more than a minute or so) and it creates a lot of bitterness. There are many different types, some more citrusy, some grassy, so you could experiment with that and find what you like. I think if you added after fermentation it would preserve the aroma better.

You may want to try brewing a small batch of beer with no bittering agents and then adding some of the items mentioned in smaller amounts to see what you like.

I have always wondered if a hop-less beer would affect me differently, as hops are a pretty powerful sedative. I tried hop tea for sleep before, it is extremely bitter (I couldn't taste anything for a day or two), but definitely has a strong sedative effect. You also pee a ton, since it is a potent diuretic, and has phytoestrogens apparently, so maybe your hop-free beer would have other advantages...