Bittering, aromatic, almost magic: hops do everything in a modern beer. We explain what they're for, why a NEIPA smells like mango, and where the bitterness comes from.
Hops are that little flower, a cone really, that gives beer its bitterness and much of its aroma. Without them, you'd have a sweet, flat drink. With them, everything changes: bitterness, freshness, and that nose of fruit or resin we love in craft.
Hops work two ways, depending on when you add them. Early in the boil, they release bitterness (their alpha acids isomerise). Late, or cold after fermentation, that's the famous dry-hop: they keep their essential oils intact and perfume the beer without adding much bitterness.
That's the whole secret of a NEIPA like the Picaros or the Kadabra: a massive cold dry-hop that floods the beer with mango, pineapple and peach, without the biting bitterness of a West Coast. Conversely, a West Coast IPA like the Road to LAX owns a firm bitterness, pine and citrus. Same flower, two worlds.
There are hundreds of varieties, each with its signature. Citra leans citrus and passion fruit, Mosaic a tropical and herbal blend, Cascade grapefruit. You blend them like a perfumer, to draw a beer's nose.
And Alsace in all this? The region is a historic hop land. On our Liberté, Égalité, IPA, we brew with 100% Alsatian hops: a way to show that the terroir here can rival the American stars.
Next time you open a can and it smells of mango or pine resin, you'll know: that's the hops talking. And they have a lot to say.
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