Evaluation of Hop Lot Matching Methodologies

Monday April 22nd 11:30 a.m. | Venetian Ballroom E

Whether it’s due to changing crop years or a lack of availability, brewers regularly switch between different lots of hops. Through these changes, they must keep their beers’ flavors as consistent as possible, which can prove to be a challenge. A study was conducted to compare how beers brewed with different hop lots compared. Lots were selected based on the similarity of their sensory profiles, survivables content, or a combination of both factors to a control lot.

Individual beers were brewed with each lot. Finished beers’ sensory profiles were assessed and aromatics were tested via GC/MS. Additionally, tetrad tests were performed to determine if differences existed between the control and the selected lots.

While conventional wisdom suggests that hops should be replaced using the same variety, using comparable lots of different varieties was also explored, as this would provide a larger group of lots to choose from.