"Brewers are sourcing their signature bitterness in sterile labs, not muddy hop fields."

Approximately one million years ago, while visiting a brewpub in the United Kingdom, bar-side chat led to my being given an impromptu brewery tour.

The kit was primitive, enabling little more than glorified homebrewing, and in fact homebrewers I know personally have snazzier setups. The capacity was very small, just a few barrels at a time. The mash tun resembled one of those coffee services on a European train, where they pour hot water through the pre-calibrated basket into the cup.

Both the Bitter and Porter served me were excellent. If I had it all to do over, this is about as big as my brewery would ever get. Two, maybe three ales, and an occasional seasonal.

By the way, here's a story about hop extracts.

Craft Brewers Go High-Tech, by William Bostwick (Wall Street Journal)

Once relegated to industrial brewing, hop extracts are the secret behind some of today’s briskest craft beers

Nature scenes rule on craft beer labels—mountains, streams, even a yeti or two. But you won’t see a pressurized supercritical carbon-dioxide hop extraction chamber on a label anytime soon.

The dirty secret behind today’s IPAs: There’s little dirty about them. Brewers are sourcing their signature bitterness in sterile labs, not muddy hop fields.

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