Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Hops or Malt?

Whoa now, that's quite a question, eh? But, lately with all the talk of IPAs, Double IPAs, Imperial IPAs, Triple IPAs......hops, hops, and more flippin' hops, it had me asking a question of myself: If I had to choose a beer that was predominantly hoppy or predominantly malty, which would I choose? Ok, it seemed like a fair question in my head, but now that I am attempting to commit a position for the world to see, I'm starting to quake a bit in my boots. In a rare attempt to keep this short (hey, you, quiet in the peanut gallery!), I will stake a claim to the grain. I'm thinking of some nice brown ales, scotch ales, stouts, bocks, hefeweizens, and some Belgians where you get so many great characteristics in the beer with many thanks to the malted grain. Oh, but wait, how can I turn my back on the extremely wonderful traits that the hop flower brings to a beer's overall profile. I can't. It's just too painful to think of the beer world without the big, in-your-face IPAs that Hop Devil, Alpha King, and Pliny the Elder give to us. So, what have I concluded here today? Well, give me a rich, malty brew but do not close my membership in the HopsRUs club .

5 comments:

Adam said...

I would have to say I'm the opposite. I mean I can't have been without something to ferment and I'd rather that be malted barley, however, I like bitter and hoppy aromatic beers more.

I like barley wines that are hopped well. Alpha King is a great IPA. Rogue Brutal Bitter is soooo good. Yes...hops over malt, but, I honestly can't live without both.

Bryan Kolesar said...

No, you love hops? Stop trying to fool people. Just because you grow them, wax eloquently about them, feed them, and talk to them....doesn't mean you really love hops!! Who do you think you're foolin?! ;-)

Adam said...

Did somebody say hops? 37 inches as of yesterday. Good thing you got the Arbor assembled. We're running out of twine.

I still want to try that hops infuser/gadget I saw on the history channel at Dogfish Head!

Bryan Kolesar said...

Are you talking about "Randall" at DFH? Or a hopback?

I'll try to get my assembly pictures of the arbor up in a new posting very soon. Of course, it was a one-man job (where's the love?!), so the pictures are not too interesting!

Anonymous said...

Mmmm - interesting Byran - and here I thought you were a die hard hop head.