Interview: Barth Haas demonstrates versatility of hops

At BrauBeviale 2018, Alex Clere spoke to Dr. Elisabeth Wiesen, technical sales support for Barth Haas. 

Dr. Wiesen detailed how hops are now being used for innovative applications such as in lemonade products, which supplies a wider range of products to the growing market for non-alcoholic beverages.

“We have on display a new lemonade, a hopinade, we call it, which is a hibiscus lemonade. It is really refreshing and not as sweet as normal lemonades.”

With the rise in popularity of non-alcoholic beers, Barth Haas has introduced a new session IPA, Elimination, to showcase how flavour profiles do not have to be compromised in favour of reduced alcohol.

“We call our new session IPA ‘Elimination’ as we have managed to eliminate the alcohol. 

“It’s really great because you don’t taste that it’s less alcohol.”

Also on display from the company were several new hop varieties, including ones with more tropical flavour notes such as the one seen in Sabro. Dr. Wiesen said this new, U.S. derived hop has coconut aromas, which she said is a brand new element to the hop market.

“Sabro was introduced last year. It has a very fruity, tropical fruit, pineapple aroma, with a hint of coconut. This has never before existed in hop varieties. 

“We also have on show a hop blend which we call ‘Aloha’ because it has a very Hawaiin taste to it. We made a wheat beer out of it in order to combine [this new variety] with tradition.

“On the one hand, we have this wheat character, with notes of banana and clove, combined with the tropical aromas.”

Dr. Wiesen went on to detail how Barth Haas are showcasing hops in order to emphasise how they can be used for more applications than beer alone. 

“At Brau this year we have an espresso machine, which has a cold water extraction. Because of the pressure of the machine, you get more out of the hop aroma than you usually would. Then, we have two heated espresso machines, which we pour milled coffee and milled hops into, to create a ‘Hoppresso’, which results in the taste of both coffee and the hops.”

Barth Haas also has a solution for brewers who cannot afford wooden barrels, but still want woody notes to finished products. 

Dr. Wiesen said, “Usually when you are barrel ageing, you lose the hop aroma because you do it over a long time and you want to enhance woody aromas. With our Provoke pellet, you have both in your finished beers.”

Presented and edited by: Alex Clere