American Hops vs. Noble Hops

This article is going to be rich in links, please click on the links throughout the article to clarify and enlighten.

• I heard hops are related to marijuana, so what are hops anyway?

• Hops as explained by the Brewers Association on CraftBeer.com

"Hops

• A perennial climbing vine, also known by the Latin botanical name Humulus lupulus. The female plant yields flowers of soft-leaved pine-like cones (strobile) measuring about an inch in length. Only the female ripened flower is used for flavoring beer. Because hops reproduce through cuttings, the male plants are not cultivated and are even rooted out to prevent them from fertilizing the female plants, as the cones would become weighed-down with seeds. Seedless hops have a much higher bittering power than seeded. There are presently over one hundred varieties of hops cultivated around the world. Some of the best known are Brewer's Gold, Bullion, Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Cluster, Comet, Eroica, Fuggles, Galena, Goldings, Hallertau, Nugget, Northern Brewer, Perle, Saaz, Syrian Goldings, Tettnang, and Willamettes. Apart from contributing bitterness, hops impart aroma and flavor, and inhibit the growth of bacteria in wort and beer. Hops are added at the beginning (bittering hops), middle (flavoring hops), and end (aroma hops) of the boiling stage, or even later in the brewing process (dry hops). The addition of hops to beer dates from 7000-1000 BC; however hops were used to flavor beer in Pharaonic Egypt around 600 BC. They were cultivated in Germany as early as AD 300 and were used extensively in French and German monasteries in medieval times and gradually superseded other herbs and spices around the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Prior to the use of hops, beer was flavored with herbs and spices such as juniper, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, oak leaves, lime blossoms, cloves, rosemary, gentian, gaussia, chamomile, and other herbs or spices."

• Noble Hops (Saaz, Hallertau, Tettnang, Spalt) are usually described as spicy, fragrant, floral, herbal, and sometimes medicinal or perfumey.

• American Hops ( Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Amarillo, and Willamette) are commonly higher in alpha acids ( which offer more bittering characteristics) and are usually described as citrusy, piney, bitter, and resinous.  

• Want to take a more in depth look at Hops?  Here is a link that should offer almost all the hop info you could want.  

• Hop Glossary 

• Here is a refresher on  BEER INGREDIENTS