Too hop or not too hop

Humulus lupulus or hops are the little flower clusters added during the hopping process of beer brewing. Hops were originally used to prevent or slow down spoilage of beer and are still used today to add flavor and bitterness. The idea is that a good beer should contain a harmonized balance of bitterness to maltiness.

Bitterness of beer is measured in EBU (European Bitterness Units) in Europe and in IBU (International Bitterness Units) in the US. To put things into perspective, an average IPA (India Pale Ale) which is known to be one of the more ‘hoppy’ varieties of beer would normally be around 70-100 IBU, whereas something much lighter like Heineken comes in at around 23 IBU.

For your average beer drinker, the IPA style may be a little too hoppy. I personally enjoy my beer at around 70-80 IBU with other flavors going on than plain old hoppy bitterness. You’ll often hear me raving on about how awesome the San Diego microbrew culture is. I feel blessed to be surrounded by passionate beer enthusiasts, brewers and breweries. There is, however, an exception to this. I feel that some Southern Californian breweries have gone “hop crazy.” Some of the beers available now are so hopped-up that their IBU is off the scale. I enjoy a nice hoppy beer as much as the next guy, but I really think some of these breweries are going overboard. You can pretty much guarantee that anything with ‘hop’ in the name will be one of these ghastly creations. They will almost always have some kind of bright, animated graphic on the label which is aimed to appeal to the macho, yuppie , 20- to 30-something year old mook who has nothing better to do on a Friday night than to impress his mates by downing a sixer of the hoppiest concoction he can get his Neanderthal hands on.

This all takes me back to London where it’s very common to get together once a week for a curry and a few pints. I read one day in the London Metro paper that most guys who order immensely hot curries admitted to not enjoying them at all. They are simply trying to act manly in front of their pals who in turn are also ordering the hottest curry on the menu. Personally I find some of these hopped up beers unpleasant to say the least. There is far too much emphasis on adding hops for the sole purpose of hitting a high IBU rather than adding some bitterness to balance the rest of the flavors. I recall recently waking up in the middle of the night to a horrible case of cotton mouth as a result of drinking a few overly hopped beverages the previous evening. I liken this to the next morning’s bathroom blues after a hot curry.

As with our allies across the pond and their attraction to overly hot curries, these hop-crazed fat heads are doing it for one reason that I can see: to show off. What ever happened to good old fashioned cigarettes?

Cheers,
Matt the Beer Blogga