Me reading the joy of home brewing. Second time. Intresting part hops. Now. I know the alpha part of hops. Thats the bitterness. But whats the beta part. It all has to do with oils. But what is the beta part for. Dont understand
I would think that ifn the beta part of the oils was important there would be more buzz going on around it. There isn’t, so I’ve not looked deep into the how and why’s of beta. Sneezles61
Since you are talking about acids in hops this may be of interest. Click on the chart to enlarge. Hops high in cohumulone have a harsher bitter character than those with low cohumulone
levels.
Great question.
Beta acid adds bitterness but not as significantly as isomerized alpha acid. Beta acid is also more shelf stable. The beta acid can predominate in adding bitterness when using aged hops. It’s an interesting and far less explored area. I wonder what would happen if we were to pay more attention to it and hop growers began to breed for high beta instead of alpha.
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So, when hopping, use the older hops first, for bittering. I wonder what, then , is the bitterness of beta like or compared to alpha? Well maybe we should do more looking into this side of hops. Sneezles61
Interesting Flars, I would’ve associated high alpha with more of the bitterness. Williamette seems so… pleasant. Even US magnum is like the bittering go to hop for alot of my brews… Sneezles61
Actually facinating the little hops
