Hopping into some delicious beers
The importance of beer
Various brews have been available to humans for millennia and we’ve been tinkering with different recipes ever since. Along with being the basis for political and economic unrest and revolution in medieval Europe, Beer and bread are argued to be what caused nomad clans to become farming civilizations(1).
Origins of brewing
The most ancient “brewing” was simply the naturally occurring process of wild yeast eating the grain’s sugars and producing alcohol as a byproduct of their metabolism. After the first thousand years of “brewing”, people figured out the right conditions for propagating alcohol producing yeasts and created the first beer(gruit) recipe.
Originally beer was not the recreational beverage we enjoy today. Before hops were introduced, cereal grains were brewed into a gruel like mash or mixed with various herbs to be medicinal or flavorful and were known as gruit. These brews were so integral to societies that workers were often paid with rations of gruit.
Adding hops
Early brews spoiled quickly. The only method of brewing a gruit that would last long enough for shipping was to increase the alcohol content which wasn’t cheap or easy. It wasn’t until about 800 AD that Carolingian Abbot recorded the modern solution of using hops in brewing. Because of the potent flavor of hops, getting a good balance in small batches was difficult and this method was rarely used. However, In 13th century Germany when larger scale brewing operations became popular and hops became the star of the show
Beer consumption more than doubled by the 17th century and quickly became an influence on and victim of various political movements. There were 2 main types of brews, ales(without hops) and beer(with hops). They became regulated to the point where any other ingredients were forbidden. This was one of many stipulations of the beer purity law (Reinheitsgebot). Without these laws brewers would be so profitable that the price of cereal grains would rise to the point where bakers couldn’t afford to make bread.
These crazy economic and political implications were made possible by the ability to store, transport, and sell beer all the way across europe, all thanks to hops! Now that such a superior brew was available, there was no going back. Hops became the standard herb to brew with and it’s success is reflected almost every type of beer today.
Why hops?
hops are a pretty special plant when it comes to brewing. it contains [ACID 1-resin production(preservative)][ betaACID 2] [ESSENTIAL OIL]
hops haven’t always been the giant,sprawling vine that can be used to provide shade when grown over chicken coops and herb gardens. over hundreds of years of selective breeding, hops like all other cultivated plants have been specialized to grow large in controlled conditions and produce large fruits(cones) compared to their ancestors. these benefits are at the cost of being resilient.
Optimizing Cultivation
Dornbusch, Horst (27 August 2006). “Beer: The Midwife of Civilization”. Assyrian International News Agency. Retrieved 4 November 2007.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1957.tb06278.x/epdf(cite1)
http://www.openculture.com/2015/03/the-oldest-beer-recipe-in-history.html(hyperlink1)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinheitsgebot(hyperlink 2)
https://books.google.com/books?id=-X4jgPG0360C&pg=PA10#v=onepage&q&f=false(cite2)
http://www.worthygardenclub.com/blog/a-short-history-on-european-hop-cultivation (hop cultivation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humulus (hops chemistry)
