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