What are hops in beer making?
Beer commercials often mention malt, barley and hops. But these aren’t exactly common plants in the average back yard. While many people have heard of malt and barley, people usually only mention hops in the context of making beer.What They AreHops are perennial plants that can live for more than 20 years. They are dioecious, which means that the male and female plants grow separately. The light green cones of the female plant are the ingredients in beer making.Ancient HistoryRhys Terafan Greydragon says that Asians used hops for beer making as long as 10,000 years ago. Records from Babylon from the turn of the third century mention hops as an ingredient in a strong drink.Middle AgesThe oldest European reference to using hops in beer is from Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, in 1067. However, hops weren’t used widely in beer until the end of the Middle Ages. Germans were probably the first to routinely use hops in beer, and this spread to the Netherlands by the 14th century. In England, all
