For The Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops(Brewing Elements)

Hops, once a marginal player in modern brewing, have risen to iconic status thanks to the American craft beer revolution. In For the Love of Hops Stan Hieronymus explores the rich history, cultivation, and science behind this essential brewing ingredient. Hops have a long and mysterious past. Hieronymus unpacks their story with a discerning eye, separating fact from myth through deep research into historical records, scientific studies, and interviews with experts and growers. His work offers a compelling, wide-ranging look at how hops evolved from a supporting player to a defining feature in beer. From field to fermenter, the path of the hop is anything but simple. Hieronymus blends technical details—such as hop anatomy and growth cycles—with firsthand stories from farming families who’ve cultivated hops for generations. He leads readers through historic and emerging growing regions: Germany, the Czech Republic, England, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. Along the way, he illustrates the challenges growers face, from crop diseases to shifting market demands. Hieronymus also provides a catalog of over 100 hop varieties, from noble Old World types like Saaz and Tettnang to bold New World stars like Cascade, Amarillo, and Nelson Sauvin. Each entry includes vital stats and insights on flavor, aroma, and usage. Once harvested, hops unlock a brewer’s full creative range. The book dives into their essential compounds—alpha and beta acids—and how they influence bitterness, flavor stability, and aroma. Hieronymus breaks down a variety of hopping techniques, including: Early &Late Additions – How timing shapes flavor. First Wort Hopping – Adding hops before the boil. Hop Bursting & Continuous Hopping – Techniques for maximizing aroma. Dry Hopping – A full chapter dedicated to this aromatic art, from 19th-century England to today’s cutting-edge methods like hop rockets and torpedoes. He also explores how the perception of bitterness varies by individual and how exposure to heavily hopped beers can change our taste preferences—a phenomenon known as the “lupulin shift.” The development and meaning of IBUs (International Bitterness Units) are explained in context, helping demystify a widely misunderstood metric. To ground theory in practice, the book features 16 beer recipes from renowned breweries in the U.S., Belgium, Germany, England, New Zealand, and more. These recipes reveal how top brewers use hops to shape character and balance.For the Love of Hops is both educational and inspiring—a must-read for brewers, beer lovers, and anyone interested in the flower that changed beer forever.

Table of Contents:
Table of Contents Acknowledgments Foreword Introduction Me to Mirror: So You Want to Write a Book About Hops? About the Book 1. The Hop and Aroma Hop Oils: Secrets Not Yet Revealed Less Is More and Other Aroma Secrets Hop Aroma Impact The Language of Aroma and Flavor Why You Smell Tomahto and I Smell 2. A Plant With a Past ‘We Like the Hop That Grows on This Side of the Road' 3. A Plant With a Future 4. Growing Hops Location, Location, Location Size Matters, But So Does Family 5. Harvesting Hops Turning Acres of Hops Into Bales Rubbing and Sniffing A Brewer's Guide to Evaluating and Selecting Hops 6. The Hop Store Pelletizing & Pellet Products Hop Extracts Advanced Hop Products From Admiral to Zeus 7. Hops in the Brewhouse Alpha Acids and Beta Acids The Bitterness Drift Understanding IBU and Calculating Utilization Ready, Set, Start Adding Hops Post-Boil Hopping 8. Dry Hopping The Universal Questions Form Temperature Quantity Residence Time and Number of Additions Fermenter Geometry Yeast Varieties The Slurry Method Hop Cannon Torpedo 9. The Good, the Bad, and the Skunky Hop Quality Group: A Learning Process Pellets: Easier to Store but Just as Fragile Polyphenols and Phenols ‘Skunky' by Any Other Name (‘Imported') Is Still a Fault Some Like Their Hops Slightly Aged, Some Quite Old Dry Hopping and Flavor Stability 10. What Works About the Recipes The Recipes Old World's Mantra, Brasserie de la Senne Indian Brown Ale, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery New Zealand Pale Ale, Epic Brewing and Good George Brewing Union Jack IPA, Firestone Walker Brewing Fuller's 1845, Fuller, Smith & Turner Kissmeyer Stockholm Syndrom Imperial IPA, Kissmeyer Beer & Brewing Red Ale, Marble Brewery English Lager, Meantime Brewing 14° Tmavé Speciální Pivo, Pivovar Kout na Šumav˘e Bavarian Helles, Private Landbrauerei Schönram Mein Nelson Sauvin, G. Schneider & Sohn Northern Hemisphere Harvest Ale, Sierra Nevada Brewing Hopfen, Urban Chestnut Brewing Kellerpils, Victory Brewing Verboten, Weyerbacher Brewing 11. Epilogue Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Stan Hieronymus is a lifelong journalist who has made beer his beat since 1993. Former editor at RealBeer.com and ProBrewer.com and former co-travel editor for All About Beer magazine, he remains an enthusiastic traveler, happily sharing what he learns along the way. He's authored four books for Brewers Publications – Brewing Local (2016), For the Love of Hops: The Practical Guide to Aroma, Bitterness and the Culture of Hops (2012), Brewing with Wheat (2010) and Brew like a Monk (2005) – and contributed to many more. He's also written hundreds of articles for multiple publications and blogs at www.appellationbeer.com.