Advanced Hop Products: Tools for Brewing Better Beer

Looking for an efficient way to increase hop-aroma intensity? How about a way to improve a beer’s head retention, or to adjust IBUs post-fermentation to meet a recipe spec? Advanced hop products can unlock new possibilities while offering solutions to everyday challenges you might face, from the brewhouse to the cellar.

The benefits hops that bring to beer are well known and well recognized, but traditional hopping methods are relatively inefficient. Bitterness, aroma, and yield efficiency all tend to take a hit when using leaf or pellet products. Vegetative matter absorbs precious wort, and leaf and pellet hops are primarily made up of vegetative matter. No vegetative matter means smaller trub piles; less sediment means less you have to dump.

Advanced hop products have been designed to provide brewers like you with options to improve beer quality and gain process efficiencies. By concentrating soft resin compounds (α-acids, β-acids) and essential oils typically found in leaf or pellet hops, these advanced products can improve solubility and ease of use, thus providing benefits to brewers in five important categories:

AROMA/FLAVOR

When looking at ways to improve aroma intensity, Beta Aroma Extract (BAE) and Aroma Extract are the two best choices.

BAE delivers impactful, variety-specific flavor and aroma as a fractionated form of CO2 hop extract. In this product, α-acids have been removed to explicitly enhance aroma with little to no added bitterness. BAE is best used as a late-kettle/whirlpool addition to partially replace leaf or pellet hops. Since BAE contains no vegetative matter, this product can also help increase yields.

Aroma Extract is a concentrated form of BAE with a higher hop-oil concentration. It can be added near the end of boil or in the whirlpool for added flavor and aroma.

BITTERNESS

As brewhouse efficiencies can vary from batch to batch, hitting a specific IBU target can be a challenge. A helpful product is Isomerized Hop Extract (ISO 30%). ISO 30% is a concentrated solution of iso-alpha acids—a.k.a. IBUs in a bottle! This product provides the ultimate flexibility after fermentation to top-up bitterness or partially replace traditional forms of bittering.

YIELD ENHANCEMENT

Although most advanced hop products can improve beer yields, our most favored one for that purpose is HopFlow. HopFlow is a user-friendly, flowable form of C02 hop extract. HopFlow eliminates the need for warming, making it easy to measure per addition. You can use it to partially or entirely replace leaf or pellet hops in the brew kettle or whirlpool, since HopFlow contains all hop essential oils and soft resins.

FOAM IMPROVEMENT

Foam is an important visual representation for quality beer, but some beer styles are decidedly foam-challenged. Some recommended advanced hop products to help meet this challenge are Tetra Extract and Alpha Extract.

Tetra is the holy grail of foam enhancement. By adding as little as 5 ppm, Tetra Extract greatly improves foam stability, lacing, and can add protection against lightstruck flavors when used with other forms of light-stable alpha acids. It is suggested for use after fermentation and before final filtration.

Alpha Extract is a concentrated, aqueous solution of α-acids and is ideal for improving beer foam and lacing post-fermentation without contributing any added sensorial bitterness to the final product.

ANTIMICROBIAL PROTECTION:

While all hop acids have varying levels of antimicrobial protection, beta acids are by far the most powerful. The best β-acid advanced hop product is Betabio 45%. Betabio 45% contains a concentrated form of natural β-acid fractions from hop extract and can be used in the kettle for added protection against common beer-spoilage organisms.

Hopsteiner’s popular advanced hop product line is the result of years of collaboration among brewing professionals. Meticulous research and extensive trials have gone into achieving the perfect out-the-box tools to save time, money, and most importantly, to stay ahead of consumer interests. From brewhouse to cellar, advanced hop products offer more convenience, consistency, and better overall efficiency for improving beer quality.

Since 1845, Hopsteiner has led the industry as a preferred global hops supplier, partnering with breweries of all sizes to offer a unique range of hop varieties and innovative hop products designed to enhance flavor, aroma, consistency, and flexibility for brewing and beyond.

Discover more: Hopsteiner.com | 1.800.339.8410 | Contact Us