Stan Hieronymus

In today’s hop-forward beers, whirlpool additions contribute many of the IBUs—yet the results are less clear-cut than adding to the boil. Research—some new, some not so new—may provide direction.

Brewer’s Gold established the viability of hybrid hops, and its offspring include some of modern brewing’s biggest aroma stars. Don’t call it a comeback, but Russian River is exploring what it may contribute today.

It’s rough out there—even for young, freshly developed hop cultivars. Yet while many brewers are buying fewer hops these days, the Help Wanted sign is still out for new ones.

As growers hunt for better visibility into the hop market’s future, researchers are looking into how brewing and growing practices might change in ways that directly affect the character of beer.

By making direct connections with farmers, wherever they are, brewers can improve the quality and variety of hops they get—even at the smallest breweries.

Even beyond hop aroma and flavor, researchers have identified a number of ways that advanced hop products and related offerings can help nonalcoholic beer taste more like the real thing.

Plenty of evidence suggests that skillfully applied hop character can make NA beers more satisfying. While making them both tasty and food-safe is a challenge, the knowledge base is growing alongside the number of hop products that can help.

New varieties and products on the immediate horizon range from a defiantly intriguing public hop to compounds that might emulate “sticking your head in a bag of weed.” Will you apply the eye dropper, or the sledgehammer?

Recent experiments at New Belgium could help smaller breweries decide whether the benefits of mid-fermentation dry hopping are worth the potential costs.

Brewers looking for greater efficiencies and longer-lasting hop aroma, among other things, can find several avenues to explore in recently published studies.