gabs_official_guide_2015
gabs_official_guide_2015
gabs_official_guide_2015
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BROUGHT TO YOU BY<br />
THE GREAT HOP<br />
PILGRIMAGE<br />
INGREDIENTS OF BEER<br />
So what makes beer, beer? Very simply beer is made from four basic<br />
ingredients; hops, malt, water and yeast.<br />
1. HOPS<br />
Hops, formally known as<br />
Humulus Lupulus, are<br />
vine-like plants that act as<br />
the seasoning (balancing malt<br />
sweetness) for beer and<br />
deliver bitterness, aroma and<br />
flavour. During the annual hop<br />
harvest, hop flowers are picked off the vine, dried and<br />
then used in the brewing process. The intensity of the<br />
bitterness to the beer depends on when the hops are<br />
added in the brew cycle and the amount used. Added<br />
early they will increase the bitterness but decrease the<br />
aroma, added later will have the opposite effect.<br />
Little Creatures sources a seasonal range of<br />
specialty hops from the US, Victoria, Tasmania and<br />
New Zealand to achieve a variety of unique aromatic<br />
and bittering characters in its beers. So dedicated<br />
to sourcing the freshest, highest quality whole hop<br />
cones, Little Creatures set up a customs port at<br />
Fremantle Harbour to receive these beauties direct<br />
and throw them straight into their beer.<br />
To get the most out of these precious hops, Little<br />
Creatures installed a hopback, which is like an<br />
enormous hop tea bag that elicits delicious flavours<br />
and aromas into their beer. Little Creatures and White<br />
Rabbit are the only breweries in Australia to have<br />
this special piece of equipment… and they make the<br />
most of it.<br />
Little Creatures also takes yearly pilgrimages to the<br />
States to select the best and freshest hops from the<br />
northern hemisphere harvest. Check out brewer Dan’s<br />
hop pilgrimage tour notes on the right.<br />
2. MALT<br />
Malting is the partial<br />
germination and kilning of a<br />
grain, most commonly barley<br />
and in some cases wheat,<br />
rye, or other grains. Malt<br />
starch is converted into<br />
soluble sugar during the brewing process – producing<br />
aqueous malt extract or wort. This wort fuels the<br />
fermentation process, giving malt its nickname; “the<br />
engine room of beer”.<br />
Malt gives different flavour, colour and body to the<br />
beer depending on the style of malt used. The length,<br />
moisture content and degree of roasting (temperature)<br />
determine the colour of a beer.<br />
Little Creatures quite often mixes different malts<br />
and sources specialty malts to obtain varying degrees<br />
of colour and flavour. Malt derived proteins also<br />
contribute to the formation of the head when you<br />
pour a beer.<br />
3. WATER<br />
Water, by volume, is the main<br />
ingredient in beer. Little<br />
Creatures uses local tap<br />
water that then goes through<br />
a serious filtration process to strip the water right<br />
back. They then add stylised salt additions<br />
depending on the beer style they’re using it for;<br />
keeping in mind the salt profile can greatly affect the<br />
perceived flavour of a beer.<br />
4. YEAST<br />
Yeast is a single-celled<br />
organism that consumes<br />
simple sugars and converts<br />
them into alcohol and CO 2 .<br />
This unicellular fungus is the essential ingredient in<br />
order for the beer to go through a fermentation<br />
process and turn the hopped wort (the hoppy,<br />
sugary liquid extracted from the brewing process)<br />
into beer. Brewers’ yeast can be roughly segmented<br />
into two groups, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, a top<br />
fermenting yeast, which works at warmer<br />
temperatures creating ales, and Saccharomyces<br />
uvarum, a bottom fermenting yeast, which works at<br />
lower temperatures, for lager beers. Different types<br />
of yeast can also affect the flavour of beer, either by<br />
accentuating the existing flavour or by adding spicy,<br />
fruity tones.<br />
Ever wondered where the team at Little<br />
Creatures source their hops?<br />
Back in September, brewer Dan headed<br />
off for his annual trip to the USA. This is<br />
his story…<br />
"Every year we buy some of our hops from<br />
the USA. They are grown in the Yakima<br />
Valley and Willamette Valley where the<br />
climate is ideal for hop growing.<br />
There are hundreds of farmers growing<br />
hundreds of different varieties of<br />
hops. With any farming or raw material<br />
production there can be factors that<br />
influence the quality of a farmer’s crop.<br />
Therefore you have some farmers with<br />
sensational hops and some with poor<br />
crops... and everything in between.<br />
Many brewers around the world descend<br />
on the Valleys. In essence, breweries have a<br />
hop contract with the supplier, and you let<br />
them know when you’re coming to choose<br />
your hops. They set up the selection process<br />
and you select the best hops you can.<br />
There are also lots of breweries that send a<br />
selector, however some don’t send anyone<br />
and they get what they are given. Little<br />
Creatures is all about making the best<br />
beer we can, so we try to get the best hops<br />
available and that’s why we will always<br />
send someone to make that choice.<br />
What’s important to remember is that<br />
if you are given or you select inferior<br />
hops you have to use them until the next<br />
season, so you need to be obsessively<br />
critical in order to ensure you’ve secured<br />
your fair share of gold... greeny yellowish<br />
aromatic gold that is."<br />
12 THE GREAT AUSTRALASIAN BEER SPECTAPULAR <strong>2015</strong> <strong>gabs</strong>festival.com.au