Hops have a big impact on craft beer equipment brewing, and adding hops to beer is of great significance. The main components of hops are alpha-acids and betas, hop oil and many others. It does not give the beer the ability to rot and clarify the wort, while imparting aroma and pleasant bitterness to the beer.
In the production process of beer, hops cannot condense macromolecular substances in wort, and can also play a role in decay, prolonging the storage time of beer, and suitable for long-term storage and long-distance transportation. The ingredients of brewing hops mainly include: hop oil, hop bitter substances and hop substances.
1. Hop oil, contained in hops. ~2. hop oil. Its composition is complex. Hop oil solubility, easy to volatilize, easy to oxidize. The main components of hop oil are terpene carbon compounds, oxygenated compounds and trace compounds. Hop oil is not easily soluble in water and wort, and most of the hop oil is separated out during the boiling of wort or the separation of hot and cold coagulum. Although very little is preserved in beer, hop oil is the main source of hop aroma in beer.
2. Hops bitter substances, the bitter taste and rot capacity of beer are mainly provided by the bitter substances α-acid and β-acid in hops.
Alpha-acids, also known as humulones, have a bitter taste and decay ability, and are easily isomerized into iso-alpha-acids in weak alkaline solutions (the isomerization rate can be ~). The solubility of iso-α-acid in wort is much greater than that of α-acid, and its bitterness and rot capacity are also higher than that of α-acid, which is the main source of beer bitterness.
β-acid, also known as lupulone, has low solubility, bitter taste and rotten ability α-acid, β-acid has the ability to inhibit gram-positive bacteria and negative bacteria. Alpha-acids and beta-acids are easily oxidized into soft resins and hard resins, and hard resins are valuable in beer brewing.
3. There are many kinds of substances in hops. There are many kinds of substances in hops, mainly anthocyanins, anthocyanins and tannins, among which anthocyanins account for the majority. The polycontent of hops is much higher than that of barley, and it is the main component that affects beer flavor and causes beer turbidity. Most of the hops have the effect of precipitating proteins when the wort is boiled, but this precipitation continues after the wort is cooled, fermented, and even filtered and bottled, causing the beer to be cloudy. Therefore, more hops have both advantages and disadvantages for beer, which need to be well controlled in production.
In beer production, the amount of hops added is 6/1000 of the total amount of wort, and the ratio of fragrant and bitter flowers is 1:2. During the boiling process, the wort is generally added in two times, the bitter flower is added after boiling for one minute, and the fragrant flower is added one hour before the end of boiling.
The storage environment of hops is generally in a low temperature and dry environment. Generally, they are stored in the refrigerator after use. The storage temperature is -4 degrees Celsius. If placed in the air, the hops are easily oxidized and lose their function. Therefore, the storage environment should be strictly controlled.
