It’s Monday, so what the heck . . .
– Last week, Jeff Alworth endeavored to shame 10 beer myths. He chose “noble hops” as one of them. I certainly prefer the term landrace hops and I agree that marketers amplified “noble” to sell their hops. However, the origins go back to the 19th century. I’ve written more extensively about this in print, but here is a short version of the story.
What bothered me more was the discussion of cohumulone. Arguments about co-eightch, as is known among both friends and foes, have centered on if hops with higher levels impart a harsher bitterness. Research at Oregon State University pretty much debunks that. And as far as “IPA hops” go, an average lot of Simcoe will have a lower level of COH than an average lot of Saaz.
A big difference between landrace varieties and modern bred varieties is the alpha to beta ratio. One reason that Coors stepped up to support Cascade hops more than 50 years ago was that Cascade had a ratio of about one to one, more like the landrace varieties large brewers were using at the time. It turned out that Cascade had other qualities (like plenty of geraniol) that didn’t quite fit in their beers. It’s not necessarily the a-to-b that makes the difference, but it serves as a marker for auxiliary bitter compounds.
– Father Martin has a new hat. We are traveling, so access to my photo archives is limited. Otherwise I would also post a photo of Father Martin wearing the Benedictine Brewery “dad hat” he was wearing the last time time I saw him almost two years ago. If you visit the brewery “our story” page and scroll dad hat you’ll see him with the old hat, which was black in its youth and gray in later years.
The story is about a 50-year partnership between the abbey at Mount Angel, Oregon, and Coleman Agriculture. Previously, the monks tended to hops grown on the land that Coleman Agriculture now leases. The beer to celebrate their partnership is brewed with Simcoe hops, grown in a field across from the the brewery tasting room.
I will accept all the opprobrium folks want to dish out on the facts, but I will dissent on the characterization that my post was about shaming. I actually tried very hard *not* to shame anyone, going so far as to acknowledge my own mistakes. We all make mistakes. Learning from them is the important bit. No shame was intended or implied.
Think of it as a bit of making wise, similar to “Beervana Amalgamated Sentences have been hard at work searching, sorting, and evaluating beer’s greatest romantic facts.”
Well yes, I’ll cop to that!