In a recent post I praised the virtues of “Green-hopped”
beer, describing this relatively new phenomenon as one of the most exciting
developments of recent years in brewing. Unfortunately green-hopping has been
paralleled by a less welcome development, and one which to me seems more of a
gimmick than anything else.
I am talking about “single-varietal” hop beers, i.e. beers
that are bittered with just one variety of hops, rather than the more usual
practice of balancing the flavours by using several. I was reminded of this yesterday,
whilst browsing the bottled beers on sale in M&S. To my amazement there
were five different single variety hop beers on the shelves; each beer being
brewed using a different hop variety and by a different brewer.
The hops used are Sovereign, Citra, Brewers Gold
(Hallertau), Cascade and Mosaic. The last named hop is a relative newcomer on
the scene, following on from Citra and Cascade, which are citrus-flavoured
varieties from North America. The brewers concerned are
Elgoods, Oakham, Crouch Vale, Castle Rock and Adnams.
Part of the M&S range of single-hop beers |
I remember M & S running a promotion on the first four
of these beers some 18 months or so ago. My wife bought me a few to try, and
with the exception of the Citra beer, I was singularly unimpressed. I would
describe them as “one-dimensional”, which is hardly surprising. The established
brewing practice has been, for many decades, to brew using a combination of
hops; adding some for bitterness and some for aroma. There will also be several
additions throughout the boil, with bittering hops added to the copper at the
beginning, and aroma hops towards the end.
Single varietal hop beers fly in the face of decades of
brewing wisdom, so bearing in mind that the varieties used will either be
strong on bitterness or strong on aroma, is it any wonder the resultant beers
lack complexity and appear very “one-dimensional”.
I am surprised that these five beers still form part of the
M&S range. One of our larger local brewers, Westerham, had a rolling
programme a few years ago of brewing a different single varietal hop beer every
month. I have to say I was not overly impressed with the ones I tried, and the
fact they have all been quietly dropped from the range suggests the drinking
public thought the same way about them.
We only have to look to the wine industry in order to see
similar parallels. A decade or so ago Chardonnay was all the range, with the
chattering classes raving over wines produced from this particular grape
variety. Several years later, attention shifted to Pinot Grigio. As I’m no
longer involved in the of-licence trade, and I probably drink as much wine in a
year than your average Frenchman drinks in a week, I have no idea as to which
grape variety is the current “flavour of the month”.
What I do know is that whilst very good wines can be produced
from a single grape variety (white Burgundies spring to mind here), such wines
are usually at the top end of the market, where a whole host of other factors,
such as climate, soil etc (the famous “terroir”), come into play. When bog
standard plonk is produced from just one grape variety, the results are often
less impressive, although much less so than with single varietal hop beers.
The question to ask then is “What future, if any, for single
varietal hop beers?” Are they just a fad, or are they an important tool when it
comes to educating the beer drinking public about the different varieties of
hops that are now available, and the effects they have on both aroma and
flavour?