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from the nerding-out-on-homebrew-recipes dept.
NPR reports that the rise of craft breweries has helped to sustain hop growers:
Hop Growers are raising a glass to craft brewers. The demand for small-batch brews has helped growers boost their revenues, expand their operations, and, in some cases, save their farms. "Without the advent of craft brewing, a few large, corporate growers would be supplying all of the hops and local, family owned farms like ours would have gone bankrupt," says Diane Gooding, vice president of operations at Gooding Farms, a hop grower in Wilder, Idaho. "It's saved the industry."
[...] The thirst for craft beer has exploded. In 2015, the Colorado-based Brewers Association reported a 12.8 percent increase in craft-beer sales (compared to 0.2 percent for beer sales overall) and estimates the market at $22.3 billion—about one-quarter of the total U.S. beer market. Craft brews use more hops than traditional lagers produced by large brewing companies, which accounts for the surge in demand. Unlike big breweries, where hops are used to give beer its bitterness, craft breweries use "aroma" varieties of hops that have less acid (and impart less bitterness); each of the different varieties add a distinct flavor to the beer.
Craft beers contain up to five times more hops than traditional beers. The result, according to Jaki Brophy, communications director for the trade association Hop Growers of America, is "a huge impact" on commercial hop growers. In 2016, there are 53,213 acres of hops growing nationwide—the most acreage ever in production and an 18.5 percent increase over 2015. Almost all of the hops production is in Washington, Oregon and Idaho but 29 states are registered to grow the crop. Although there has been significant consolidation in the industry—the number of commercial growers decreased from 378 in 1964 and 90 in 1987 to just 44 in 2015, according to Hop Growers of America—new growers are coming online all the time.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2016, @06:36PM
Rice or corn aren't there to save money, they are there to lighten the beer body and color. Two things happened in the 19th century. The big one was the world-wide explosion of Pilsner Urquel, which is the very definition of the pilsner style beer. It was so huge that every brewery wanted to make it. To get that beautiful golden color, you need to lighten the beer somehow. Things like rice and corn do that by adding fermentable sugars that give you alcohol without adding any significant color (barley gives you alcohol, plus other products, but you also pick up color from the level of toasting that was done to the malt).
The other issue was the style of barley that grows in North America. 6-row barley grows great in North America, which gives you many more barley kernels per stalk than the 2-row barley grown in Europe. The yield per acre is much greater, but one drawback with respect to beer making is that you end up with a lot more protein in your beer, which causes haze and stability issues, because there's not enough enzymes in the barley to remove it. However, if you cut the barley by replacing it with something that provides you fermentable sugars without extra proteins, you eliminate that problem. That's what the German immigrants did in Milwaukee, St. Louis, etc.
By the way, adjuncts have been staples of British and Belgian beers for centuries.
Also, it costs Budweiser more money to use corn. The corn costs about the same as the barley, but they have to process it separately. They have to cook it first before it goes into the mash. Bud and them would actually save a lot of money not using corn and rice, but then they would end up with a significantly different beer.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Tuesday August 02 2016, @09:24PM
A couple of specific Belgian and British beer styles used adjuncts (including confectionery sugar). Although historically rice and corn were used to a degree at one time, popular use of corn and rice started purely as a cost saving measure. This is not to say that good beer can't be made with them, and a few craft breweries have started using corn, etc, in some of their products to make them lighter and a little less intensely flavoured.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2016, @11:18PM
Britain has always used adjuncts, and they still do. The amounts have been strongly affected by the taxes from the Crown, but it is something like 15 to 20 percent of the modern fermentables, with sugar being very popular.
I would be interested to know of which Belgian beer styles do not use adjuncts such as wheat or sugar. The same for British beers. The ones that do are much more towards the "vast majority" side than the "couple specific" side.
Rice and corn are not cost savers. As mentioned, they need to be processed and gelatinized before being used in the mash tun; all of which takes up a lot of time and energy. They were only cost savers at times in history when taxes were specifically levied higher on malt than rice and corn, which you can see with greater use of corn and rice after the Malt Tax was repealed in 1880. And they are essential in North America if you are going to try to make any light-bodied beer, or any beer with shelf stability using the native barley.
What about wheat? Throw out wheat and you've thrown out Bavaria, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Belgium, England, etc. Toss out the fruit beers of Belgium and France. All the spice beers.
This "adjuncts are bad" attitude used to be much more prevalent in the late 80s and early 90s when beer snob wannabees arose and became entirely enamored with the Rheinheitsgebot. They equated this law with beer goodness, which it is certainly not, but marketers then and still do run with it. It evokes that same visceral knee-jerk reaction that wine wannabees used when they condescendingly point out that "you don't have red wine with fish!" You ask them "why not", because you happen to like red wine, and all you get is "one just doesn't do that!"
Beer is cooking. One could declare that all baking must only consist of wheat flour, well, that is not very interesting or practical. As long as you're not swapping out for some kind of deleterious ingredient, adjuncts are just another ingredient to get a specific effect or flavor. You're not going to brew a light American lagar with all-malt; you just can't get there. The same with IPAs, particularly the high gravity IPAs. They would be much too cloying and heavy as all-malt.
By the way, I think I mentioned Bud and corn. I think they use rice and Miller uses corn. I always get those switched around.
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Wednesday August 03 2016, @01:01AM
England? Maybe if you throw out wheat, you would throw out the cheap, mega-mass produced swills from England, but I doubt that the craft beers ("real ales") use it in significant quantities.
The UK went through a period when all beer was swill. Then CAMRA came along and very good beer became common in England. Note that the "very good" beer would not be liked by many American drinkers, who still demand chilled beer, even for their craft beer.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 03 2016, @03:17AM
My favorite beer in the whole world is this stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgvtC9Fi3Vg [youtube.com]
which by definition is an adjunct, but you can't brew the style without incorporating lactose, so what do you do?
Any drinking that ice-cold is missing the point.
(Score: 2) by jelizondo on Wednesday August 03 2016, @04:54AM
I just threw away my moderation points to reply to you, so please don't think that I mean to upset you or belittle you.
Beer, and wine, at room temperature are very fine in cold climates... Not so in tropical climates. It is almost midnight here and I'm having a very cooold beer; temperature here? 30.4ºC
So stuff it, try drinking any beer or wine at 30.4º C and see how you like it!
(Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Wednesday August 03 2016, @05:02AM
It's a common myth amongst Americans that the British drink their beer at room temperature. In fact, good beer is generally served at cellar temperature -- it's cool, but not chilled so that it becomes tasteless.
(Score: 2) by Nerdfest on Wednesday August 03 2016, @01:31AM
I'd like to see some references for most English and Belgian beers using corn or sugar. I know Guinness was using HFCS for a while, but as far as I've seen, most of the beers from those countries are pure barley (or wheat, or occasionally rye). I'm assuming any that are are the very mass produced "beers", but even most of those would surprise me.
I'm not sure what you're on about saying good IPAs would be too cloying with pure barley. There are very few if any craft IPAs that are not pure barley malt.
(Score: 2) by rleigh on Wednesday August 03 2016, @08:52AM
When I worked at Whitbread, every single beer was produced from barley. The only variation was in the roasting; stouts were well roasted, ales were in the middle, and lagers were a very light roast. There was only one exception to this, which was Stella Artois, which used rolled maize (corn flakes!). Other additional ingredients may well have been used (I didn't see the recipes not being a brewer, just a tech), but the primary ingredients were all standard.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:24AM
English references from a guy who actually goes through historical British brewing log books:
1880 - 1914 [blogspot.com]
Between 1914 and 1953 [blogspot.com]:
1920 - 1939 [blogspot.com]
Before 1960 [blogspot.com]
Here's [blogspot.com] an interview with a late 19th century brewer from Bass on the use of adjuncts.
This [blogspot.com] is from looking at late 19th century grists:
I need to wonder, why are you so obstinate on this topic?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 04 2016, @12:34AM
??????
I said you can't get good drinkability out of a high gravity IPA (aka IIPA) on malt alone. You need to dry it out and to do that, you need sugar. Try this as one example [byo.com], from a guy who is seen as the king of the IIPAs:
That's how the Belgians get drinkability out of their high gravity beers as well.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Wednesday August 03 2016, @09:03AM
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