We have explored hop products before in previous articles, but since we have a beer that has an insane amount of different types of Citra hop products, it's the perfect chance to dive deeper into all these concepts. We’re talking about ‘God’s Country’; a Hazy DIPA made by Good Land, in collaboration with Mountain Culture, for their 4th birthday.
Most of these products are made to concentrate Lupulin, the waxy yellow part inside hop flowers, which holds the essential oils that concentrate that fragrant aroma and punchy hops flavour. Both the types of product used are solid (concentrating the hop flower) or liquid (mostly through distillation: steam, CO2 or ethanol).
SOLID
T90: the classic T90 pellets are the industry standard for brewing.
Lupomax: another pellet which concentrates the lupulin with less green matter and adds consistency for an optimized hop flavour, increasing the yield of each beer batch. Used both in hot side and cold side additions.
Cryo hops: cryogenic hop-processing technology (basically freezing) is used to separate whole cones into two components - concentrated lupulin and bract.
LIQUID
Sounds like Pokémon TCG Special Abilities!
DynaBoost: an oil enriched extract made for whirlpool addition that really enhances the aromatics and just dissolves into the wort (beer before it becomes beer).
Incognito: adds a great amount of flavour and aroma in the beer, also used as a whirlpool addition.
Hyperboost: mostly used for cold side hop addition (after fermentation) and it concentrates aroma-specific hop oils to really give that extra kick in your beer, especially for that first impression: you just know you’re in for a treat.
Quantum Brite: it comes in small bottles, but it concentrates even the most volatile of compounds through a low temperature extraction that allows 100% usage with very little hassle.
Whatever your hoppy requirements are, we are now living in a world where hops can take any shape and form, all in the benefit of the consumer (that means us, yay!). Now grab that beer, crack it open and dive into the hop-verse!
Image: Yakima Chief Hops
