What was once an optional step for clarity has become virtually essential for packing flavor into IPAs and other hop-forward beers. Commercial brewers have specialized gear for it, while homebrewers—whether they realize it or not—also have everything they need for whirlpooling.
Oakland, California’s Ghost Town made a splash in 2021 and 2022, winning back-to-back GABF gold medals for their Nose Goblin Imperial IPA, along with notable 2022 medals in the strong pale ale and India pale lager categories. One of their secrets, of course, is hop quality—but the qualities that head brewer Justin Burdt seeks out aren’t exactly the ones you might think.
Brewing saisons with Brettanomyces offers an enticing opportunity to fully embrace Noble and Noble-esque hops, including newer varieties such as Adeena and Loral and later kettle additions to encourage biotransformation. Crooked Stave founder and brewmaster Chad Yakobson breaks down some possibilities.
A ruddy ’90s pint is reappearing with modernized flavors—and it has a lot to say about the evolution of American craft brewing.
One of beer’s signature ingredients is adding interest and depth to one of the world’s great fermented drinks. Here’s how and why some cidermakers are embracing hops.
One of the world’s most cherished hop-growing regions had a rough growing season last year—but there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, and there is more to Czech hops than Saaz.
Scott Janish, cofounder of Sapwood Cellars and author of The New IPA, explains how mash-hopping—especially before fermenting with yeasts that are engineered to unlock bound thiols—can add a significant aroma boost to your IPAs.
In this clip from their video course, Hop Butcher for the World cofounders and brewers Jude La Rose and Jeremiah Zimmer bust up some T-90s and explain how to “rub” and evaluate hops as found in their most popular format today.
In this clip from their video course, Hop Butcher for the World cofounder Jude La Rose describes what Riwaka’s unique full-spectrum flavor profile can do for a beer, whether that’s an IPA, a lager, or even a Kölsch.
In this clip from their video course, Hop Butcher for the World cofounders and brewers Jude La Rose and Jeremiah Zimmer explain how they select and deploy a “banger” hop such as Mosaic, as compared to more role-player “passenger” hops.