always been key ingredients in beer, the fact that tends to shock people the most is that the addition of hops in beer came long after beer was discovered. Contrary to popular believe, Hops, which are the female counterpart of the plant species Humulus Lupulus, are a fairly new ingredient in what most of us think of as typical beer that we have in our fridge at home. The mystery is what took so long for us to finally figure out that the addition of hops benefits the brewing process and the taste in
Hops: Not Just A Beer Ingredient The hop, Humulus lupulus, is a cultivated flowering plant, green in color that has many economically important roles. The hop belongs to the hemp family, Cannabinaceae. There are many features that are distinctive about this plant. A hops plant has yellow lupulin glands between the petals, which is used for preservative and flavoring characteristics in beer. The bitterness of the hop is used to balance the sweetness of the malt, and the essential oils add a flavor
were determined by the specific region they lived in. Beer, however was very similar in production and brewing compared to ales, but beer used hops for flavor and preservation (Johnston, 2015a). Hops are dried flower of perennial vines called Humulus Lupulus they provide both tangy and bitter flavor and preserve beer by warding off bacteria (Spiegel, 2014). Another primary difference between ale and beer is that ale is limited to local area, while beer on the other hand could be distributed at much