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During the summer of 2016, I decided I was going to do it. I was going to write a book. I didn’t realize at the time it would take me over two years. I didn’t know I would have to read nearly 1,000 papers on brewing. I didn’t realize the project might inspire me to quit a desk job, open a brewery, and lose health insurance. I didn’t know I’d travel the country making new friends by interviewing brewers whom I respected the most. I have to say, this has been a lot of hard work, it’s been incredibly educational, and I’d do it all over again!
Book Introduction
In late January 2016, a snowstorm shut down the Federal Government and I found myself stuck at home fascinated with a study I came across on extraction during dry hopping. Previously, I had spent more time than I care to admit reading through homebrew forums and blogs trying to find answers to processes-related brewing questions that intrigued me. With that first study that caught my attention authored by Peter Wolf, I finally had a source that wasn’t online anecdotal experiences and opinions, but actual tested data with sensory results. I was hooked and spent the remainder of that snow day scouring the internet for similar hop studies, eventually writing my first scientific blog post summarizing what I learned titled, “Examination of Studies: Hopping Methods and Concepts for Achieving Maximum Hop Aroma and Flavor.” From that day forward, I created alerts for brewing studies, signed up for the various academic organizations that publish journals and stashed every brewing study I collected into a searchable cloud database, which would become the ultimate source for this book.
The snow day was a blessing in that I found my niche as a blogger, which to me, was somebody willing to spend countless hours digging through research (not always knowing what I was looking for) and testing out the findings that excited me the most with 5-gallon experimental batches on my stove. This book is the organic extension of that passion to learn and put into practice the great work of brewing researchers around the world. Over the span of two years, I spent my free time reading over 1,000 academic studies (citing over 300 of them in the pages ahead) focusing the direction of the research on information that could help explain the mystery of hop aroma and flavor.
This isn’t a book promising the absolute best methods to brew world class hazy IPAs (it should help with that, however). Rather, it’s a book exploring the science of the various factors that contribute to brewing intensely aromatic and flavorful hoppy beers, with the hope of getting brewers to think differently about how to approach the style. My goal for the book is to inspire brewers to use the research to experiment and disrupt ingrained brewing habits and commonly held beliefs. I often think I’m onto something when my brewing friends and colleagues think my next planned experiment is crazy. It’s this outside the box thinking, driven by scientific data, that can produce amazing (and horrible) results.
Brewing amazing beer isn’t always the goal of experimentation. For example, research related to dry hopping and bitterness inspired me to brew a hazy IPA with zero hot-side hopping, choosing to only dry hop the beer at high levels. The resulting beer wasn’t very good, it was extremely bitter in a polyphenol-vegetal way and was void of any fruity hop saturated flavor. Despite the taste, I considered the experiment a success. It taught me that hot-side hopping was a valuable part of making a great IPA and the research portion of the experiment (authored by John Paul Maye Ph.D.) gave me a new understanding of how dry hops contribute to bitterness and flavor.
The decision to self-publish this book was one I approached cautiously. A publisher would help polish the contents with a professional staff dedicated to the craft. Their reach in promoting the book would be another obvious upside. The downside of self-publishing is that all the work is on me, somebody with zero experience in book production. So, should I go with a publisher or self-publish? Luckily for me, none of the major publishers seemed that interested in a book focused solely on hop science, so the decision to go at it alone became an easy one!
I’m excited about the benefits of self-publishing, however. The ability to focus on the topics that I’m most interested in is extremely rewarding. Working on this project on my own timeline was also a huge bonus as starting up a brewery at the same time really slowed its progress. I’m also excited to have the rights to the content so I can use it on my blog or in other publications as I wish. Another big bonus to self-publishing is the ability to put out updates to the book as often as I wish (including small updates to address inevitable typos and formatting issues). As the science evolves and I continue to talk with other brewers, there should be plenty of future findings to write about!
About the Book
I start the book out in Chapter one exploring the history of hop research and build a foundation of basic hop compound knowledge to use as a guide throughout the book. I also look closely at the differences between hop pellets, cones, and various extract products.
Chapter two is all about hot-side hopping, which includes science on early addition bittering hops and late whirlpool hops. I look at research into the importance of whirlpool hopping for enhanced hop flavoring. How the temperatures and durations of whirlpool hopping can impact hop compounds. Also, how certain hop varieties can have higher extraction efficiency than others.
Chapter three takes a close look at the importance of proper hop storage and how aging hops can impact their compounds and ultimately the flavor of the beer. Surprisingly, some of the research may inspire experiments using slightly aged hops on the hot-side!
Chapter four focuses on one of the most important characteristics of a great hazy IPA, a soft and approachable mouthfeel. Water chemistry (sulfate-chloride ratios), additions of minerals from malts, how minerals can impact hop flavors, and personal experiments help to appreciate the keys to great mouthfeel.
Chapter five examines how grist selection can impact flavor perceptions in hoppy beers. In particular, how the concentrations of proteins, carbohydrates, and viscosity can alter flavor and aroma perceptions. Even certain base malts may contribute more fruity flavors than others! Yeast pitching rates is also looked at as another factor in the retention or elimination of volatile hop compounds.
In Chapter six, I break down esters and fusel alcohol production during fermentation, both of which can play large roles in the final taste and aroma of beer. A little bit of fruity ester production with the right yeast strain can play a positive role in making a hoppy beer more complex and aromatic, while too much can compete and potentially dominate the hop flavors you might be seeking. This Chapter looks closely at what brewing variables may increase or decrease esters and alcohol production so brewers can make changes to their processes to get closer to their desired goals.
Chapter seven covers one of my favorite aspects of brewing hazy hoppy beers, dry hopping! I look at research on the importance of keeping oxygen out during dry hopping, how different dry hopping durations and amounts can impact hop compound extraction, and the some of the potential negative aspects of dry hopping (like too much polyphenol extraction).
In Chapter eight, I continue looking at dry hopping research focusing on how processes can impact the bitterness of beer. It’s commonly believed that the only way to get hop bitterness into beer is with hot-side additions, but recent research sheds light on the importance of different hop bittering acids and their extraction during dry hopping. In addition to bitterness, this Chapter looks at the impact dry hopping can have on the final pH of beer, which can impact perceived bitterness.
Chapter nine explores research surrounding dry hopping and enzymatic activity which can lead to refermentation. Often referred to as hop creep, the enzymatic activity from dry hops can be put in check with various processes maneuvers like controlling dry hop temperatures and contact time.
Chapter ten gets into another one of my favorite topics, biotransformation of hop compounds. The term biotransformation is often thrown around as a key to hazy hoppy beers but is largely misunderstood and mystic. This Chapter gathers together the relevant papers on the subject to give brewers a better understanding of what biotransformation is as well as factors that favor its production.
In Chapter eleven, I stay with the topic of biotransformation focusing on hop thiols, which despite having low concentrations in hops, have the potential to enhance hop flavor. This Chapter also explores research from the wine industry on important thiols contributing to fruity flavors in wine (many of which are found in hops) and methods used to increase their presence in beer via biotransformation. I also share my experience using wine strains in hoppy beers inspired by the research.
Chapter twelve looks at a new and popular product called lupulin powder, developed by Yakima Chief, Hopunion Cryo Hops® (as they are called) are advertised as the concentrated lupulin of whole leaf hops which contain aromatic hop oils but less of the vegetative material of traditional hop pellets. I talk to commercial brewers about their experience with lupulin powder and look at tested data on IBU and polyphenol contributions from cryo hops.
Chapter thirteen looks closely at the science of why hazy IPAs are in fact hazy. Various factors have been studied like mid-fermentation dry hopping, pH and ABV levels, grist and hop selections, all of which can help brewers obtain different haze levels.
Chapter fourteen examines the fragile nature of hazy IPAs by exploring some of the research surrounding beer oxidation and ways to increase shelf-life. Grist selection, dry hop varieties, and early hot-side hopping can all impact the stability of hazy beers.
Chapter fifteen was one of my favorite chapters to write. I was lucky enough to travel around the country interviewing brewers I respect the most (not only for their established haze credentials, but for being open to sharing their secrets and lessons learned over the years). There is no question that the early success of brewing hazy hoppy beers at Sapwood Cellars is a direct result of these honest brewing conversations. In this Chapter, you will learn from the best, including Other Half Brewing, Prison City Pub and Brewery, Reuben’s Brews, Breakside Brewery, Bissel Brothers, and Great Notion!
The New IPA can be purchased here.
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Always enjoyed your perspectives and writings, can’t wait to get my copy!
Thanks, hope you like it!
Anywhere besides Amazon to buy this? Love your work, don’t love the idea of giving Jeff Bezos my money.
I’m working on Google Play and Apple Books, but that’s just for ebook sales.
Are there any plans to sell the book in DRM-free stores, like Kobo? Some eReaders don’t work well with Amazon & DRM; and if the store folds, books can become unreadable (like Microsoft’s eBook store that’s closing down).
Congratulations on publishing your book! It looks very well researched. I can’t wait to read about how hops interact with the beer in a cask of real ale.
I’ve been a long time follower and have anxiously awaited this book. Congrats! Can’t wait to read it.
I noticed the ebook and print formats are not linked together on Amazon which makes the link on blog not show the ebook. It also says you’ve enabled Match book do I can get an ebook copy of I buy the printed version which I love, but I don’t think it’s working for this same reason. Can you take a look?
I looked it up and it might just take a few days for it to show up properly. The books are linked on my end, but if it’s not linked in a few more days I’ll reach out to them!
Way to go Scott!
Purchased! Looking forward to the read!
Purchased! Thanks for writing this. Always enjoy your podcasts and writing. Sounds like Sapwood is off to a great start!
Absolutely, it was a blast to research and write. I hope you like it!
So I’m 80% of the way through the book and the funny thing is what has me most confused is the Malt Bill for a Hazy IPA! The hop info is great but man are the studies on unmalted vs malted grains, manganese and all the other details confusing!! It seems the Brewers well known for the style are going against the research on many things which is typical where real world results rarely align w lab results. So what’s your current Hazy grist look like at Sapwood after digesting all this research? Great Book by the way
Guess I should have read the last few pages before I asked!
Right now I like to do about 10% malted oats, 10% malted wheat, 10% chit malt, 70% 2-row (or substitute some of the 2-row with pilsner in higher ABV hazy beers).
Hi Scott,
Best of luck with the new publication.
Sounds awesome! I can’t wait to dig in!
I have been waiting for this since you first mentioned it.
How about autographed copies?
Would make excellent gifts for other hazy crazy brewers.
Jim
Jim
Thanks for giving it a read! I’ll have to think about doing some signings I guess!
Hey Scott,
Great job on the book! I ordered my copy right away, and was happy to see that I could get it delivered to Greenland where I live : )
I’m not going to complain about the price, but judging by the content of your blog posts and subjects covered in the book, I would say the price tag is rather low!
I look forward to read and use it!
Best regards,
Troels
I thought you were going the other way with the price! I figured it should be worth at least the equivalent of a good growler of beer!
Congratulations. I bought it throught Amazon and I expect read it soon. Two weeks to arrive to Barcelona. Josep.
Eh. Of all the aspects of brewing, of all the ingredients and methods, you’ve picked the least interesting one.
Hazy IPAs are rarely any good. It’s a boring, trendy style, that I overlook entirely when at a bottle shop, and would never waste time brewing. Hops in general are the least important and least interesting ingredient in beer. In a good beer, hops add a bit of balance, and maybe a hint of flavor and bitterness. Beers that are designed to be showcases for hops are rarely any good.
Malt is the backbone of beer, and it’s the malts we use that contribute the flavor, the color, and the very sugars used to make beer what it is. Grist composition and mash process are far more important in making a good beer than hop selection.
And yeast is the most important and interesting ingredient of all. Most of the best and most interesting beers are the ones that showcase yeast – I’ll pay far more money and go out of my way for a Drie Fontainen with its deep complexity from the mixed culture fermentation than I ever would for any of these carbon-copy hop bombs that lazy brewers enjoy cranking out. Even for “clean” beers, my unhopped Norwegian farmhouse ale, fermented with kveik yeast, is far more interesting than any IPA I’ve tasted – as is a good saison or any abbey style beer. Even a good crisp German lager, it’s the yeast that makes it what it is.
Yeast is literally what makes beer. And it’s by far more interesting than any combination of hops fermented with Safale US05.
All these ridiculous new hop varieties are nothing but crutches. They don’t make particularly good or interesting beer, and they seem mostly to be a method for brewers to cover up flawed or lazy brewing practices. If you can’t brew good beer with just East Kent Goldings, Saaz, and one or two similar varieties, you’re doing it wrong.
Hello Evan, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter so I may hear more of your musings.
Get off your high horse and shut the fuck up. It’s beer man. It’s like you’re taking this personally. Why so serious?
I can only imagine how fun you must be at parties!
A bad day.
Hi Scott, big fan of your work here in Brazil! Would love to work with you to translate it to Portuguese so that folks here could enjoy all the knowledge that you have put together.
Thanks Pedro, feel free to contact me to discuss!
Do you worry at all about adding DO in the cold water addition to lower whirlpool temp? You mention carefully adding the hops to avoid DO pickup. I’ve discussed this with other brewers but unfortunately none of us are the size we can afford a DO meter. I think it may be a bit paranoid to worry about the DO in such a small addition but it wouldn’t be a huge hassle in a commercial brewery to boil some water and run it through the HX into kegs which u could hit w a touch of CO2 pressure and store in the cooler til needed. It would only take two kegs for a barrel of near freezing water. Since the book is looking at every variable maybe I’m not crazy!
I agree it would be a huge hassle to pre-boil the water then have to cool it. You could experiment with Sodium Metabisulfite (SMB) to the cooling/whirlpool water.
Hey Scott, congratulations. The book looks great. Just ordered my copy.
After reading your post I’m assuming many of the studies you’ve researched focus on commercial applications/ approaches. Do you address how they translate ,or do you offer advice, for the modest homebrewer?
Thanks for getting a copy! I did my best to try and apply the various studies to both homebrewing and commercial brewing (I’ve been a homebrewer much longer than I’ve been brewing commercially).
Good job, Scott! I am looking forward to reading!
Hey Scott,
Really enjoying the book, it’s put together very well. Just out of curiosity, what is your calculated IBU range in some of these beers that you are whirlpooling hot with 2 lbs per barrel? The reason I ask, is when I out the this equivalence into Beer Smith for my home brew kit, I get some insanely high IBU’s from these additions. Are these beers at Sapwood not coming off as too bitter after seeing such large hot side additions? I hope to try some of you beer some day!
Cheers,
Jason
Hey Jason,
It depends on the beer and the hops used, but we are usually around 80-110 IBUs calculated. For lower ABV beers we’ll drop the temperature to around 180F to help with bitterness, but still allowing us to pack as many hop compounds into the fermenter as we can. I think our hazy hoppy beers are balanced fairly well, I often complain that many hoppy beers don’t have enough hot-side bitterness/flavor.
Hi Scott
I have read your book and I like it, a lot of useful information. Something that I miss and would like to learn more about is hop pairing. Would really like to see a post about that in the future. It is not easy to find good information about that topic.
Hey Scott, I appreciate the work you put into the blog and book, great work!
I was interested to know if you have experimented with adding slightly aged hops in the WP as you discussed in chapter 3 of the book? I guess opening a bag of Centennial and leaving in the the fridge for a few weeks and using that in the WP compared to a batch with an unopened bag would be a good place to start?
Thanks! We’ll use slightly aged (open from previous batches) in the whirlpool often at the brewery. It’s hard to say how much exactly the slightly aged factor is playing without further testing of compounds but we’ve enjoyed the beers! A few weeks opened vs. one unopened would be a fun experiment (especially if they were packaged from the same lot/supplier).
I have v.1.0 of the physical book. Is there an errata sheet that I could use to update my book? Thanks!
Hello Scott,
I am a big fan of your blogs and read everything I can find on the internet, thank you so much for your great work. Are you planning to publish the book in German? My English isn’t the best, I could imagine that there are some people who would like to buy the book in German.
Best regards from Switzerland
Manfred