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Beer Bittering

by Paulie Weese

Beer is made with large amounts of sugar, particularly found in malt.   To manage the overwhelming sweetness, beer is commonly brewed with hops.   Hops are small green flower that grow on vines that reach sixteen feet tall.   Farmers support the vines through trellising the vines on wires held up by telephone poles.   After harvesting, they are dried and kept in sealed, light-proof storage areas to protect their freshness.

Hops, however, have not always been used as the main bittering agent.  Hops were first found in the Czechoslovakia area around 1000 A.D.  Later, in the 13^th century hops made it to Germany and Holland.  By the 14^th century, hops were more popular.  And like all fads, this changed in the 15^th century.  Villages regulated their brewing and brewers, including price controls.  Local control allowed governments to tax easily and brand their areas to tastes and flavors.

In the 15^th century, the German Purity Law was enacted to standardize brewing.   Due to unscrupulous activity amongst brewers, this became one of the earliest food and drug type enactments by big governments.   Brewers commonly used herbs and flowers to make their beers, but some would use items like eggs and animal parts.   As you can guess, this led to awful, foul beers.   The German Purity Law (Reinheitsgebot) was to make beer safer and consistent.   In 1987, these regulations were lifted, allowing brewers to use other ingredients to make beer, essentially stating in a different law (Biergesetz) that if the ingredient was allowed in foods, it was allowed in beer.

Malt is very sugary and additives like herbs and flowers have been used to bring in a bitter quality to balance out malt’s sweetness.   Mostly herbs, these ingredients imparted characteristics that made beers characteristic.   Some herbs historically used are sweet gale, sage, common yarrow and pine resin.   In the research that I have uncovered over the years, wormwood is commonly spoken about as a bittering agent.   Wormwood is curious in that it is a source of thujone, which is considered a narcotic poison by the FDA.   Thujone by itself will guarantee a sick stomach.   Yarrow also has this quality, only in much smaller ways and lends itself well to bringing quality to lighter colored beers and is also an antibacterial and antimicrobial agent.

When brewing beer in the past, I have experimented with a few herbs and have not been disappointed.   Though I like to experiment, I tend to use a recipe.   If I had been brewing beer for a long time, I may be more amiable to mixing up a strange recipe or two.   For now, I am taking good advice from master brewers, using hops, and looking for a good strange brew to ferment.

Published August, 2009

Paulie Weese, www.thebarleyreview.com          Back To Main Article Menu