Let’s explore a phenomena that has challenged Triptych in the past and continues to sometimes present issues for us, it’s called Hop Creep. But first, let’s recap how beer is made. If you’ve had the chance to attend one of our brewery tours (quick plug, I’m giving the tour this Saturday!), some of this will sound familiar. To make beer at Triptych, we take grain that has been malted by a maltster, soak it in some hot water, strain the liquid, boil it, add hops, cool it, add yeast, wait a bit, and boom! We have beer. Let’s zoom in on what “malted” actually means. Malted grain is germinated under controlled conditions to develop enzymes inside the grain kernel. In the brewing process, the introduction of hot water activates these enzymes and converts the starch in the grain kernel to sugar and that sugar later becomes alcohol and fizz in the beer via the magic of fermentation. Enzymes are really neat. They’re basically a special kind of protein that work as a catalyst for reactions, like the conversion of starch to sugar. Enzymes never get used up and the only real way to deactivate them is with heat, like the heat that comes during the brewing process. But did you know that hops also contain some of the same enzymes that malted barley has? And that is where our challenge begins.
Hop creep is a modern name for something that has existed since the dawn of dry-hopping beer. In 1941, British brewing literature pointed out the phenomenon where otherwise stable casks of ale would continue to ferment after hops were introduced. But the interesting intersection and popularity of beers that contain a lot of hops (i.e. 2+ ounces per gallon of beer), that are also unfiltered (so there is still some amount of viable yeast cells present) have brought hop creep to the forefront again. During the brewing process, we manipulate several variables with the goal of creating a specific mix of different sugars and proteins. And normally, the boiling part of the beer making process deactivates any enzymes present so that our mix of sugars and proteins is preserved. But when we dry hop, a new batch of enzymes are hitching a ride into our beer. And enzymes don’t discriminate, they take the complicated sugars that were impossible for the yeast to digest and they start simplifying them into a form that the yeast can once again consume. This secondary fermentation causes the beer to change. It changes the balance of the beer, it changes the alcohol content, and unfortunately, if the beer is in a container, it can rupture the container. So what can we do to try and prevent hop creep?
Hop creep is a modern name for something that has existed since the dawn of dry-hopping beer. In 1941, British brewing literature pointed out the phenomenon where otherwise stable casks of ale would continue to ferment after hops were introduced. But the interesting intersection and popularity of beers that contain a lot of hops (i.e. 2+ ounces per gallon of beer), that are also unfiltered (so there is still some amount of viable yeast cells present) have brought hop creep to the forefront again. During the brewing process, we manipulate several variables with the goal of creating a specific mix of different sugars and proteins. And normally, the boiling part of the beer making process deactivates any enzymes present so that our mix of sugars and proteins is preserved. But when we dry hop, a new batch of enzymes are hitching a ride into our beer. And enzymes don’t discriminate, they take the complicated sugars that were impossible for the yeast to digest and they start simplifying them into a form that the yeast can once again consume. This secondary fermentation causes the beer to change. It changes the balance of the beer, it changes the alcohol content, and unfortunately, if the beer is in a container, it can rupture the container. So what can we do to try and prevent hop creep?
We could pasteurize our beer. Unfortunately, we currently lack the equipment to make this happen, but for an investment around $100k, we could definitely do it. But... pasteurizing is also not necessarily appropriate for every style of beer and existing brands would need to be modified to account for the changes pasteurization brings.
We could add lactose to every beer! The enzymes in hops are unable to act on lactose so we could use lactose to ensure our balance stays as intended… of course, lactose and I don’t have a great history together so that would probably not be a great solution either.
We could filter or aggressively fine our beer. Without the yeast in the beer, even if enzymes modify the sugar profile, there’s no yeast there to ferment the new sugars and this particular problem has been averted. We have several brands of beer at Triptych that are filtered/fined so that minimal yeast in the final beer, but this approach isn’t appropriate for every style of beer that we produce.
Another way we try and prevent hop creep at Triptych is through carefully monitoring fermentation progress and keeping detailed statistics about every batch. With enough data, we can time the addition of dry hops and the packaging of the beer to try and ensure that the majority of the secondary, hop induced fermentation happens in our fermentation tank and not in a can of beer. But some variables that affect the speed and veracity of this process are still out of our control. Hops will contain varying amounts of soluble enzymes depending on where they were grown and how they were handled after harvest. So one brand of beer that may have never exhibited any symptoms of hop creep may start showing it as hops from a new harvest year roll in.
The final way that we currently try to address hop creep at Triptych is by keeping our beer cold at all times. Low temperatures will significantly slow down the yeast so that any activity is very minimal. We may seem militant at times about our stance regarding cold beer and hop creep is just one of the many reasons why.
Fortunately this isn’t the last word on what we’re doing to try and address hop creep. We’re constantly experimenting with new techniques to mitigate this interesting phenomenon without compromising the characteristics that make our juicy, hazy, hop forward beers enjoyable.