(523a) Characterization of New Hop Varieties and Beers in Support of New Mexico Craft Brewing Industry

In New Mexico, as in many states in the U.S., the craft brewing industry is continuing to expand as new breweries and brewpubs open, and farmers begin to grow hops and malting barley to provide local ingredients. Sustainability of these new enterprises depends on the availability of training, analyses for QA/QC, information about best practices, and networking along the supply chain. To help support these industries, NMSBrew—the brewery engineering education and research program at New Mexico State University—has developed capacity to provide analysis of hops from local hop growers for bittering acids, hop storage index (aging), essential oils, and polyphenols, and of wort and finished beers for local brewers for density, alcohol by volume, and concentrations of carbon dioxide and oxygen. Early work on hop characterization has focused on new varieties of native hops, Humulus lupulus neomexicanus, as well as traditional hop varieties grown in the lower latitudes and drier/hotter climate of the desert Southwest. Results indicate that H.l. neomexicanus hops contain higher levels of polyphenols, especially xanthohumol, and unique essential oil components.