The Hop Box

  In 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria decreed that beer should only have four ingredients: water, malted grains, hops and yeast. This is the Reinheitsgebot, or the German beer purity law. This 500-year-old basic recipe is still followed by beer brewers even until today.  Water—as in the human body—constitutes most of beer. In fact, the typical beer is 90 to 95% water. Malted...

Dry Hopping If you’re ready for your beer’s hop nose to wow you, it might be time to try dry hopping. Dry hopping is the process of adding hops to beer after fermentation has begun. Dry hopping conveys a fresh hop aroma in the beer without adding any bitterness and brings a unique taste character. Adding hops later on in the process conserves the...

Brewing is the process of creating beer from scratch using four main ingredients and four steps. The basic ingredients to beer are grains, hops, yeast, and water. The four steps are malting, mashing, boiling, and fermenting. THE FOUR BASIC INGREDIENTS IN BEER Malted barley is the most common grain used for beer. In other beers,  malted wheat and unmalted ingredients such as corn and...