In order to produce beers with a unique character that can easily be distinguished from other brands, brewers worldwide focus more and more on new and special aroma varieties. In 2010 the new American variety “Delta” was commercially grown for the first time and the brewers’ feedback has been promising.

Hop pellets, conventional hop extracts (ethanol and CO2), isomerized kettle extracts (IKE, PIKE) and light stable kettle extracts (LSKE) are the products usually used in the brew house. Besides excellent storage stability, hop extracts are homogenous and therefore can be dosed precisely to add mainly bitterness to the beer.

Our new CO₂-Extraction plant in Mainburg, which has a capacity of approx. 4,000 tons of hops per year, started up in autumn 2010. This new investment is an extremely important addition to our well-established Ethanol-Extraction plant.

Mycotoxins are a diverse range of molecules that are harmful to humans. They are secondary metabolites secreted by moulds, mostly Penicillium and Fusarium. Because of their antimicrobial activity it is most unlikely that hops could be considered a source for mycotoxins. In order to confirm this we again monitored the situation concerning residues of most toxic mycotoxins by screening hops after the last harvest. In our investigations, all major European varieties from different growing areas were considered. To guarantee a representative analysis, ten samples of large lots were selected and then combined into one composite sample for each variety. These results for the 2010 crop are presented in the table below.

Downstream products, such as regular iso extract, rhohydro-iso-, terahydro-iso- and hexahydro-iso extracts, are usually dosed prior to filtration. However in practice some brewers are still adding these extracts after filtration, when there is a distinct risk of precipitation in beer and therefore also of inducing gushing.

Each crop year we like to show the annual variability in the contribution of hop oils to beer flavour. The representative hop aroma substance chosen as a marker is linalool, which has been shown to correlate well with the sensory impression of a hoppy aroma in beer.

The Hopsteiner Guidelines 2010 will soon be published and be available at BRAU 2010 in Nuremberg. We are still working on some details of the beer production and will present the balance of World Alpha Acid Supply and Demand as soon as possible.

Light Stable Kettle Extract (LSKE) can be used to brew beers in much the same way as beers produced using conventional CO2-Extract.