35. The influence of hop oil content and composition on hop aroma intensity in dry-hopped beer

Daniel Vollmer (1); (1) Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, U.S.A.

Technical Session 10: Dry Hopping
Monday, August 15  •  9:45–11:30 a.m.
Tower Building, Second Level, Grand Ballroom

When hops are added to beer, varying degrees of hoppy aroma persist as a result of cultivar differences and the point of hop addition. Dry-hopping is a technique whereby hops are added to beer post-fermentation to leverage the maximum aroma potential of the hop oil. Given that hop oil serves as the primary reservoir of aromatic compounds in the hops, we hypothesized that using hops with greater total oil content (mL/100 g) will result in higher levels of beer aroma performance (BAP) for dry-hopped beers. An unhopped beer was dry-hopped with 23 individual Cascade hop lots and the resultant beer was evaluated using sensory descriptive analysis. The results demonstrated the negligible role of total oil content (mL/100 g) as an indicator of BAP. In fact, there was no correlation between total oil content and overall hop aroma intensity (OHAI). Therefore, the specific volume of hop oil is an inadequate indicator of BAP in the dry-hop system. This work challenges several conventional ideas, namely that using hops with higher oil content for dry-hopping promotes a greater degree of hoppy aroma in beer. This research affirms the complexity of how hop materials relate to sensory aroma performance in beer systems.

Daniel Vollmer is a doctoral candidate in the Food and Fermentation Science program at Oregon State University under the advisement of Dr. Thomas Shellhammer. His research examines the contributing factors in hops that influence dry-hop aroma in beer. He also has helped develop OSU’s annual Beer Analyses Workshop series, focusing on quality assurance and control. Daniel is a member of the American Society of Brewing Chemists and actively participates on the programming committee. He completed the UC Davis Master Brewers Program in 2012 and received his M.S. and B.S. degrees in food science and technology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.