A common ingredient, hops is the magic that brings your beer some delicious fruity, aromatic and even bitter flavours.
Going all the way back to the 16th century, hops has been vital in the crafting of alcohol. Way back then, German brewers were the first to add hops to wort, an infusion of grains which ultimately becomes beer. Hops made its way to Britain in the 1800's when brewers realised their beer was turning to vinegar on the long journeys to India and hops would help it keep for longer.
Fast forward to 2021 and hops is still a crucial cog in the brewing process. At Carnival we love to use hops to give our beers a defined flavour profile and taste. Our beautiful oatmeal stout, Urban Shaker combines hops with chocolate malts to create a dark colour with tantalising aromas that result in flavours akin to a bar of 80% dark chocolate.
Hops is behind the beautiful flavours that could be found in our Good Liverpool x Carnival Collaboration - Santa's Belter.
We love to craft juicy, brightly coloured and aromatic pale ales, our Good Liverpool collaboration ale, Santa's Belter, and our flagship beer, Carmen, are perfect examples. While we use hops in our stouts to leave a bitterness in the taste, when using hops for our pale ales, we carefully select those that develop delicious aromas and oils that eventually become the mouth-watering drinks we all know and love.
For Carmen for example, we hand-pick a well-known hop from the USA, Mosaic, which is a variety of hop that is beloved by modern breweries for its tropical fruit, bubblegum, dank (yes this is a good thing for hop heads), and floral aromatics.
Hops help us create the eye-catching hazy appearance that modern brewers and drinkers love.
Why do we do this? Hops like Mosaic impart loads of the desired fruity aromatics as they travel through the beer, and the more we add, the more intense the aromas. We also like to add these oil rich hops into protein heavy beers to help create a delightful hazy appearance, desired by modern beer lovers.
Our hoppy beers like We are Diamonds, Friend it's Still You, Carmen, All Clouds are Silver, Paisley, One o'Clock Pale all feature different hops, used in different combinations to create unique flavour profiles and aromas.
What's your favourite hop or combination of hops?
Grab a taste of Carnival's best and newest beers in our Carnival Taster Box, found right here.