Preservation of hops

A composition and method for preserving hops at room temperature utilizes the inherent properties of fermentable hydroscopic powders to retain essential volatile oils and hop acids for extended periods of time. The composition is an intimate mixture of a fermentable hydroscopic powder such as maltose and dextrose and granulated hops having a low moisture content. This composition is prepared by reducing the size of the hops to a granular size and mixing the hops intimately with an equal or greater weight of hydroscopic powder.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
The brewery industry is perhaps one of the oldest continuous industries 
with which man has been involved. While most modern brewery companies 
produce products that are quite comparable in overall appearance and 
taste, different breweries do vary the ratios of ingredients to achieve 
variations in flavor. One of the flavor ingredients varied by breweries is 
hops which is utilized in virtually all brewing processes for beer and ale 
products. The hops contain both essential oils that give aroma to the 
product and hop acids that provide the bitterness desireable in the 
product. Accordingly, variation in the amount of the essential oils and 
beer acids placed in the beer or ale affects the flavor; this mandates 
careful control of the quality and quantity of hops used in the brewing 
process. 
Hops, however, is a seasonal crop having a very limited time of harvest 
which necessitates preservation of hops for 12 months or more in order to 
be used year round. Preservation of hops, therefore, is a problem that has 
long confronted the brewing industry. During the storage process it is 
imperative to protect the hops from heat and exposure to air since the 
heat can cause vaporization of the essential oils from the hops and air or 
a combination of air and heat can result in oxidation of the hops which 
causes an "off" flavor. In any event, unless the brewer is able to 
maintain consistency in the quality of hops, the beer or ale produced may 
vary in taste from batch to batch as a result of the variation in the 
amount of essential oils and hop acids present in the product. 
Accordingly, it has been necessary to find ways of storing hops which 
maintain the levels of essential oils and hop acids at fairly constant 
levels. 
Such present methods of preservation of the hops include refrigerating the 
hops, sealing the hops in a vacuum, pelletizing the hops and sealing them 
in a vacuum, and extracting the essential oils and acids for storage; 
these techniques, however, have several drawbacks. For example, both 
refrigerating fresh hops and vacuum sealing of fresh hops require large 
storage spaces and are accordingly expensive to employ. In addition, these 
techniques consume large amounts of energy either in the packaging process 
or in the maintenance of the fresh hops at refrigerated temperatures. 
While pelletizing and sealing the hops in a vacuum reduces the storage 
space, it also is a fairly expensive process to carry out. Finally, 
extraction of the essential oils and beer acids has the drawback of 
altering the flavor of beer which uses the extracted product as one of its 
ingredients. 
In addition to hops, common beer and ale recipes call for the inclusion of 
dextrose (glucose) in the form of corn or rice sugar and maltose in the 
form of a liquid or dry malt extract. Maltose and dextrose, in a dry form, 
are very hydroscopic and exhibit high absorptive and adsorptive 
characteristics. In contrast to hops, both of these substances have a 
relatively stable shelf life at room temperature so that they can be 
stored for substantial periods of time without refrigeration. It is thus 
desireable to utilize the shelf life and other physical properties of 
these ingredients to extend the shelf life of hops. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for increasing 
the shelf life of hops used in the brewing industry. 
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of 
storing hops without restoring to refrigeration or vacuum sealing. 
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method of 
storing hops used in the brewing industry which method utilizes inherent 
properties of common beer ingredients to stabilize the oxidation and 
vaporization of the hop acids and essential oils contained in hops. 
A still further object of the present invention is to provide a composite 
mixture of beer hops and other beer ingredients such that the desirable 
characteristics of hops are retained at room temperature storage for a 
shelf life of at least one year. 
To accomplish these objects, the present invention provides a novel 
approach to preserving hops for substantial periods of time utilizing the 
stabilizing characteristics of other beer ingredients such as dextrose and 
maltose. More particularly, the method includes the steps of reducing 
fresh hops to a granular size, such as by grinding the hops to particles 
preferably having diameters of less than 1 millimeter, and then intimately 
mixing the granulated hops with a fermentable hydroscopic powder such as 
dried maltose or dextrose or a combination of maltose and dextrose in a 
ratio such that the weight percent of hops is less than or equal to the 
combined weight percent of maltose and dextrose. This intimately mixed 
product is then allowed to pack naturally under its own weight, or may be 
mechanically compressed to pack the mixture. 
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention the moisture content 
of the hops is monitored and granulated hops having a moisture content of 
greater than 6%, and more preferably on the order of 11%, are selected for 
mixing with the maltose and/or dextrose. This moisture content permits a 
caking or packing of the intimately mixed composition, and due to the 
sugar and moisture content of the composition, as well as the volatile 
oils, a thin glaze or shell is formed about the exposed surfaces of the 
hop granules. This shell tends to exclude the exchange of oxygen 
therethrough to reduce the oxidation process and to prohibit evaporation 
of the hop acids and the volatile oils from the surface of the hop 
granules. Further, since the maltose and dextrose exhibit the physical 
characteristics of adsorption and absorption, the hop acids and volatile 
oils which do vaporize are retained in the composition. 
In one form of the invention, the ratio of hops to the maltose and dextrose 
is made equal to the ratio of hops to the "wort" or unfermented beer 
solution. With this ratio, it is only necessary to add the desired 
quantity of water to the mixture to create an unfermented beer having a 
proper amount of hops for flavor and aroma. This mixture, then, is 
particularly adaptable as a dry beer mix for mass marketing distribution 
and home fermentation of beer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
The present invention relates to a novel brewing composition and a method 
of preparing such composition to provide more convenient storing of hops 
used in the brewing industry. Specifically, the present invention provides 
a simple, yet attractive method for extending the shelf life of hops to 
maintain desired levels of hop acids and volatile oils which impart flavor 
and aroma to beer, ale and similar products without the need to 
refrigerate the hops or package the hops in vacuum. While the brewing 
industry has been wide spread for many centuries, there has been a long 
felt need for such a simple effective method and such a storable product 
wherein the shelf life of the hops stored at room temperature is extended 
without resorting to expensive packaging techniques. The present invention 
accomplishes this by utilizing inherent properties found in common 
ingredients of beer and ale which properties protect the hops when mixed 
in the fashion described below. 
Specifically, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, fresh 
or even pelletized hops are reduced to small particles having a granular 
size on the order of 1 millimeter or less in diameter. The granulated hops 
are then intimately mixed, by any convenient mechanical process, with a 
fermentable hydroscopic powder which is preferably comprised of either 
maltose or dextrose (glucose) or a combination of both maltose and 
dextrose such as that obtained from rice or corn sugar, and commonly used 
in the beer industry. Preferably the granulated hops have a moisture 
content by weight of approximately 6% to 16%, although hops have been 
successfully utilized which have a moisture content as low as 0.2% by 
weight. It has been found experimentally that very suitable results are 
achieved where hops having a moisture content of approximately 11% are 
mixed with the hydroscopic powder. 
In the preferred form of the present invention it has been found that 
acceptable results are achieved when the weight amount of the hydroscopic 
powder equals or exceeds the weight amount of granulated hops. However, 
the present composition is particularly adaptable for use as a home 
brewing mixture. Accordingly, it is desirable to form a composite mixture 
wherein the hops are mixed with the maltose and dextrose in a ratio 
corresponding to the quantity of hops necessary for producing the wort or 
unfermented beer solution when water is added. Thus one particularly 
useful ratio of hops to maltose/dextrose powder is a mixture of between 
0.5% and 1.5% by weight of hops to the weight of the hydroscopic powder. 
When the mixture is prepared in this ratio, the addition of the desired 
quantity of water to form the wort results in an amount of hops 
appropriate to give a flavor and aroma corresponding to beers produced 
commercially. 
In order to prepare the above described composition, then, it is necessary 
to first reduce a desired weight amount of hops to granular or particulate 
size and then intimately mix the granulated hops with an equal or greater 
weight of hydroscopic powder in the form of either maltose, dextrose or a 
combination of maltose and dextrose. Preferably, the hops are granulated 
to have a particulate diameter of less than 1 millimeter, with the hops 
having a low moisture content. Likewise, it is desirable to use hops 
having from 0.4% to 12% hop acids and approximately 0.5% volatile oils. 
With respect to the acids and oils, it should be noted that these 
quantities are more significant from taste and aroma considerations since 
the fermentable hydroscopic powder prevents the escape of whatever amount 
of acids and oils are present. Also it has been found that a moisture 
content range of 6% to 16% by weight apparently aids in preserving the 
hops. 
The mixing of the hops and the fermentably hydroscopic powder is carried 
out by any mechanical stirring or tumbling process, and it is important 
that the temperature at which said mixing occurs or generates does not 
exceed the melting point of the hydroscopic powder used. For example, if 
the hops are mixed with a hydroscopic powder containing dextrose, the 
mixing should not occur at a temperature exceeding 85.degree. C. which is 
approximately the melting point of the dextrose powder. Likewise, should 
the hydroscopic powder consist solely of maltose the mixing should not 
occur at temperatures exceeding 100.degree. C. which approximates the 
melting point of maltose. If temperatures exceed those described above, 
the hydroscopic sugars may melt and form a candy-like material unsuitable 
for use. Naturally, after the grinding and mixing operations, the 
resulting powder may be packed and packaged in any convenient manner. 
The above process results in a composition of hops and maltose/dextrose 
which can be readily stored at room temperatures for extended periods of 
time. Indeed, where granulated hops have been mixed with the hydroscopic 
powders in a ratio of 1 to 100 by weight, a storage at room temperature 
for a period of two years has resulted in no detectable flavor change in 
beer brewed from the composition. The mechanism by which such storage is 
realized is believed to be dependent upon both the characteristics of 
adsorption and absorption inherent in the powdered dextrose and maltose as 
well as a glazing action on a particulate level. 
Specifically, it is believed that the hop acids, which include both alpha 
and beta acids, are absorbed from the hops into the dextrose and maltose 
mixture as they evaporated while the volatile oils which evaporate from 
the hops are adsorbed by the maltose and dextrose mixture. This adsorption 
and absorption occurs around the minute particles and, along with moisture 
evaporating from the hop granules, causes a fine coating or glaze to form 
about each granule's surface with this outer glaze or shell tending to 
prevent contact or air with the hops. This results in reduced breakdown of 
the hop acids or volatile oils due to oxidation. Likewise, the shell or 
glazes helps trap evaporated oils and acids in the hop granules to retard 
loss of these flavor and aroma ingredients. Thus, essentially all of the 
flavor and aroma components of the hops are preserved from oxidation in 
and evaporation from the composition, and the oils and acids are only 
released when the composition is mixed with water to form the unfermented 
beer base or wort. 
Although the present invention has been described with a certain degree of 
particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure has been made 
by way of example and that changes in details may be made without 
departing from the spirit thereof.