No 620 Hallertau Hops - Spirit

Hops are a climbing plant, as indicated by the species name "lupulus", which is a diminutive of the Latin "lupus" (= wolf), "because the plant, which climbs on other plants, causes damage like a wolf to other animals". Hops have been cultivated in Germany for more than 1,100 years. It is probably less well known that the dried female inflorescences are used as a traditional herbal medicine against restlessness and insomnia in the form of the medicinal drug "Lupuli flos" than their use as beer wort.

The ingredients of hop cones are polyphenols and lupulin, a mixture of resin and essential oil. While the resin contains hop bitters such as humulones and lupulones, the essential oil is estimated to consist of more than 1,000 components, 440 of which are known to date. The most important in terms of quantity are the monoterpene myrcene, the sesquiterpenes α-humulene and β-caryophyllene and the terpene alcohol linalool, all of which are quite volatile and poorly soluble in water. These substances therefore largely evaporate during the classic brewing process of wort boiling and are only found in significant quantities during dry hopping, for example in modern craft beers.

With our hop spirit, on the other hand, all these substances are extracted well through maceration in alcohol and, due to their volatility, are incorporated into the distillate, which promises the purest hop enjoyment without the bitter substances of the resin. Nevertheless, we have learned one thing from the brewers: one aroma hop was not enough for us - it's the mixture that makes the difference! And of course it has to be hops from the largest contiguous hop-growing region in the world, the Hallertau, where the author himself plucked hops when he was young.