Pitcher This: Hops add bitterness, bite to beer
The forbidden fruit is a flower. It's a green cone that hangs from the vines on which it grows in fields in Bavaria, rural England, Washington and Oregon. Once you've tasted it, really tasted it, there's no going back. Call it the Vine of Knowledge of Good and Not As Good Beer. These flowers, hops, combined with water, yeast and malted grain, gives beer much of its flavor. It adds bitterness, the bite that balances the sweetness of malt. And once you've acquired a taste for it, nothing else will do. I realized recently, with some distress, that my wide sampling of new brews over the last year or so has changed my flavor preferences completely. | ||
| Once upon a time, as a beer neophyte, the low bitterness of a lightly hopped American lager like Rolling Rock satisfied me. Then I branched out into beers with a sweeter, maltier character. The Texas-brewed Shiner Bock, Coors' George Killian's and the like. Then came Yuengling Lager, with just a touch more hops for a clean, refreshing finish. But before long I discovered the bread-and-butter of craft brewers, the modern American pale ale. With the piney, citrusy flavors and aromas of hops grown in the Pacific Northwest, the taste is anything but bread-and-butter. A well-hopped pale ale like Sierra Nevada or Sweetwater 420 gives off a buzz on the tongue that's far more satisfying than the buzz that comes from drinking a few. The trick for brewers is balancing the hops with just enough malt to keep you from sipping and spitting it all right back out. The next step down the road was the India pale ale, and from there to its more extreme cousins, the double and triple IPA, like those brewed by Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewery. This is where things started to get difficult. Because many of these heavily-hopped beers also wind up having more alcohol than other styles, many of them aren't available in Alabama, where the law limits beer to 6 percent alcohol by volume. Some IPAs wind up with as much as 9 percent alcohol, and can't be sold here. (That's about a quarter the strength of a standard whiskey, which you'll find in any state-run liquor store.) That's meant a lot of trips to Georgia to enjoy hoppier beers. Add the cost of gasoline to the fact that these beers are already pricier than what is on the shelf here, and you see the trouble this little green flower can cause. If you're thinking of taking your taste up a notch, here are a couple of hoppier brews available locally to get you started. But be warned: once you've tasted the forbidden fruit, there's no going back. Sweetwater 420 — An extra pale ale, the primary offering from the Atlanta brewer mentioned so often in this column. Available on tap in a few places in Calhoun County. Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale — This is a seasonal IPA released to the public for the first time this summer, brewed to celebrate the California's brewer's founding 27 years ago. I've a six pack or two still on shelves in the area. Grab 'em while you can. |
