Hey Barkeep! Stone, huh?

NOTE: Change to this post!! The Milwaukee Stone Crawl is WEDNESDAY, NOT MONDAY

So, lots of questions about this Stone Brewing thing. What's the big deal? Why should we be excited? Don't you have anything better to do than drool on the knob of some uppity San Diego beer?

Addressing the last of these issues first, no, quite frankly I don't have much else going on. And. It's a really tasty knob.

So. First, let's get the important stuff out of the way. Stone will officially be available on Monday in both Madison and Milwaukee. In fact, it's really even better than that. Pretty much everywhere except far Western Wisconsin will at least have access to Stone. So, La Crosse, you're out of luck. Platteville, if there's anyone out there, you're out of luck. Dane, Rock, Green and Iowa Counties and pretty much every county north of Central Wisconsin, you're today's lucky winners. And, of course, Milwaukee and Eastern Wisconsin. So, where in these counties can you get it? I've been told there are about 60 places just in Madison that will be getting it. The distributors have been taking pre-orders for a few weeks, and all of the non-chain retailers should be getting them in the first part of the week. So, Woodman's, Star, Riley's, Steve's, and the better beer bars around the city will all have it. So, as they say in the industry, penetration is deep.

Which beers will we get? A good question, I'm glad you asked. All of the regulars and seasonals. The jury is still out on the limited releases. We'll cover the whats a little further down the page. But, for now, you can know that the Pale Ale, the IPA, the Ruination IPA, and the Oaked Bastard will all be available in six and/or four packs. We should have 22oz bottles of the Smoked Porter and Arrogant Bastard. Draft will be IPA and Arrogant Bastard only. So, no Double Bastard, sorry. Milwaukee has some slightly different availability, as you'll see in a minute.

So, release parties. Yes. You heard right. Like waiting in line at the damn record store for 12:01am, to buy that first edition Pearl Jam "Vs." CD (man, I think I'm dating myself there - for all of you youngster its like having to wait for the new Linkin Park; OK, maybe we can both agree that it's like waiting for the new Jay-Z?), there will be release parties in both Milwaukee and Madison.

In Milwaukee, the release party is Wednesday night night.

Milwaukee is a Stone Crawl amongst a bunch of pubs. I don't have the order but I do know that Wednesday night we're going to have a bus to go from Lulu's to The Stone to Sugar Maple to Romans. It sounds as if we'll have kegs of Ruination, Oaked Arrogant Bastard, Stone Smoked Porter, Stone Pale Ale, Arrogant Bastard and last but certainly not least Stone IPA.

So, yeah. Milwaukee gets all of those on-tap. Madison has to suffer with just Arrogant Bastard and the IPA. While Maduro's, among others, will have Stone on tap on Monday just like Milwaukee, the "official" release party isn't until the evening of Thursday June 26th. Stay tuned for more details as that approaches.

With all of the pleasantries out of the way, what the heck ARE all of these beers and what's the big deal about Stone?

Stone is rated in the top 10 breweries in the world by RateBeer. Three of its beers, including one of its year-round beers, are in RateBeer's top 50 beers in the world. Four of its beers are in BeerAdvocate's Top 100. Its Levitation, an Amber Ale, won Gold at the 2007 Great American Beer Fest. The list goes on and on. The point is, they make really good beer.

So, what do we know about the beers themselves? Well, you can almost always count on hops. Most of their beers are "assertively" hopped. Assertively? Perhaps "aggressively" would be a better word. But, for all of the hops, they manage to maintain some semblance of balance. The Arrogant Bastard (RB.RB.), their signature beer, is a 7.2% ABV American Strong Ale. They make a "big" version of the Arrogant Bastard called the Double Bastard; it's 10% ABV and 100 IBUs of knock you on your ass. The Smoked Porter is much like New Glarus' Smoke on the Porter with the touch of smoke and rich chocolate and molasses notes. The Russian Imperial, also coming in a bourbon barrel flavor, is considered by many to be one of the best beers on the planet, not to mention a best-in-class entry.

They also have some awesome limited releases that we may, or may not see. But, if you want to drool a little and stand amazed at the ingenuity of American craft brewers, you can read up on the Vertical Epic, 10 years of brewing and aging producing ten beers to be consumed sometime after 2012. Yeah, it's a gimic. You got a problem with gimics? Me neither. Especially really cool, really tasty gimics.

Hey Barkeep! I’ve Got A Lot of Questions

Usually with "Hey Barkeep!" we try to answer one question in detail. This month we're going to take a few questions – some from real live folks, but some from the searches that end people on this site. As I'm sure you are aware, I have the ability to see how many people visit this site each day (for those interested, it's around 100 per day, plus another 100 from RSS feeds). About one-third to forty percent of those visits are from search engines. Did you know that I can also see what people searched for that resulted in them being at my site? It's great fun.

But first. Trust me we will do a much bigger piece on this closer to Memorial Day, but on Wednesday we were talking about beers for grilling and BBQs. So, what would I recommend for drinking with grilled chicken? On the first day that the ol' MBR grill got busted out for the year, we had grilled chicken marinated in tandoori and garam masala spices and a lemon artichoke salad (with some carrots and potatoes thrown in for good measure). Paired with this wonderful food, we had the De Proefbrouwerij Saison Imperiale, a Special Reserve Belgian Farmhouse Ale from the Brewmaster's Collection. It was purchased for $9.99 + tax (about $10.25 or so) at Steve's on the west side. Also under consideration for this meal was the Thiriez Blonde ($12.99 plus tax). The Imperial Saison (nomenclature aside) complimented the chicken well. While I would have preferred a bit more hops (maybe the Blonde would have been better), the pleasant fruity tartness cleaned the palate well and the additional body on a traditionally lighter-bodied beer didn't make me full. The musty, cherry and lemon aromas complimented the chicken's earthy spices and the salad's acidity. All-in-all, a good choice.

On to the searches; these are all real search terms that resulted in hits on this website in just this past week:

Q: "Steam beer is classified as which general beer style"
A: Back in January we talked about a taxonomy of beer. We talked about how the "family" of beer has two "genus" types – ales (top fermenting yeast) and lagers (bottom fermenting yeast). Steam beers use lager yeast, so they are technically, lagers. We then discussed how you can group the genus of ale or lager into two species: warm fermenting and cold fermenting. And in each genus you will have beers of each species. Most ales are warm fermented (temperatures above 55 degrees F), but porters are cold fermented ales. Similarly, most lagers are cold fermented (temperatures below 45 degrees F), but steam beers are warm fermented. So, to answer the question: steam beer is a warm-fermented lager.

Q: "Average amount of alcohol compunction"
A: Compunction: a feeling of deep regret. Despite my guess that the person meant "consumption" not "compunction" I would guess that the average amount of feeling of deep regret related to alcohol is fairly high and directly proportional to "consumption" on a rising logarithmic scale.

Q: "Drank too much and vomited"
A: Yeah. That'll happen. Probably a great amount compunction (see above).

Q: "Alcohol spending in Wisconsin"
A: For the most recent data I could find online (Fiscal Year 2002), the state of Wisconsin collected $9.6 million in excise taxes on beer. At $2 per barrel (although there are some breweries that only pay $1 per barrel), that's more than 4.8 million barrels (31 gallons) of beer. Given that Wisconsin only has 5.6 million people, 24% of whom are under 18, that's over a keg of beer per adult in 2002. To get a rough idea of the amount that we spend on beer, we can multiply the number of barrels sold by the going-rate for a keg (31 gallons, also called a "half-barrel", but one of these days we'll get into this weird naming system). Ranging from $45 (Natural Light) to $150 (Guinness), we can take a weighted average and call it, maybe $80? Would you agree that that's fair? So $80 a keg for 4.8 million kegs is $384 million or thereabouts. A third of a billion dollars on beer alone in the state of Wisconsin. Nice.

Q: "What is rauch ale"
A: Rauch beers are smoked beers. They can be either ales or lagers. In either case, the malts are smoked before use, traditionally over beech-wood, in some cases hickory or apple woods. For the smoking process, the malted barley is confined with smoking wood for a period of time (as little as a few hours, as much as a day or two) then used in an otherwise normal brewing process. I haven't heard of breweries "cheating" and using "liquid smoke", but I'm sure it happens.

Q: "Returnable beer bottle Indiana"
A: Don't know. Why don't you ask the Hoosier Beer Geeks?

Hey Barkeep! What's With Bocks In the Spring?

Our question this month is timely (aren't they all?). We were asked why bocks, a dark, often heavy-ish lager, are an early-spring beer.

The term "bock" in its modern usage, refers to virtually any strong lager; strong being over 6.5% ABV or so. While they are often dark beers, it is interesting to note that Michael Jackson points out that the original bocks, because of the high usage of wheat at the time and in the location, are actually what we would now call a "Weizenbock" or a "Wheat Bock." It was also top-fermenting (an ale) and fairly well-hopped (in excess of 30 IBUs).

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The bock was born in Einbeck, Germany sometime in the 1300s. As described above, however, it is painfully obvious that today's bock beer bear little resemblance to the original beer produced in Einbeck. Well, sometime in the 1700s, Southern Germans, because their beer (at the time) was so miserable, began to demand "that beer from Einbeck" - or, as they would have pronounced it in their fine southern drawls "Einbock." However, the southern breweries didn't have consistent access to wheat. The hard water in southern Germany was not very hospitable to hops, it made the already bitter hops, overly bitter (by contrast, the water in the hills and mountains of Northern Germany is much softer). Finally, the Southern breweries were far more familiar with lager fermenting than with the Northern top-fermenting. In short, it was the type of bastardization of a style that we continue to see today (to wit: the American wheat ale). And, the two styles could have competed with each other except for the fact some time around the turn of the 19th century, almost all of the breweries in Einbeck burned to the ground. With that, the world was left with the Southern German variation of the Einbeck-originated style: a dark, malty, sweet, lager. These days, beer brewed in the Northern style, lighter and hoppier, are designated "Ur-" (meaning "original").

So, why the spring?

Well, in the days before temperature control, even ale yeasts stop fermenting when the whether gets too warm. In Einbeck, these temperatures were usually reached in early May. So, in May, when the beer was done fermenting, a spring fair was held and the citizenry drank of this Einbeck beer.

And the goat often seen and associated with bock beers? Bock means "billygoat" or "goat" in German.

What about the dopplebock?

Believe it or not, the dopplebock originated in parellel with the bock, but is rather un-related. I'll let Mr. Bryce Eddings (you can read his blog, here) tell you about the Dopplebock:

Munich means “the home of monks” and it was so for the followers of St. Francis of Paula. These vegetarian monks from Italy observed two fasts each year – one during Lent and one for the month leading up to Christmas. It has often been told that European monks of this time relied on dark beers to sustain them through their long fasts and these Paulaners were no exception. They developed a particularly dark beer with a lot of protein and carbohydrates carried over from the mash that served them well during the times when solid foods were prohibited.

Because these beers were so similar to the bocks, the public began calling them "dopplebocks" and so we have dopplebocks at Lent and Christmas. This original dopplebock recipe is still made today by the brewery carrying the same name as these monks: Paulaner and the beer is still called what it was then "Salvator." In honor of the "Salvator" most breweries christen their dopplebocks with names ending in "-ator" (e.g., Ale Asylum's Bamboozleator).

Some interesting reading about bocks:
Wikipedia
All About Beer: Beer Styles: Bock
Beer.About.com (Bryce Eddings)
Michael Jackson, The Beer Hunter: Original Bock: The Beer The Doctor Ordered
Hoosier Beer Geek: the Knights dissect the BJCP bock guidelines

Hey Barkeep! I Want Head

This week's question raises the issue of head. Why do some beers foam more than others?

We can break the beer's foaminess into three components: head formation, head retention and head stability.

Head Formation

The foam is formed, essentially, by carbonation, either natural or forced. Brewers can cause beer to be carbonated in two ways. The first, and oldest, way of carbonating beer is called "natural" carbonation; it is also called bottle-conditioning. The second method is called "forced" carbonation. Natural carbonation (aka bottle conditioning) is performed by adding a small amount of active yeast to the closed container (a bottle, barrel, keg, etc.). Adding yeast causes a small amount of further fermentation. One of the byproducts of fermentation is CO2. In the course of the beer-production process, this CO2 usually escapes. However, because the bottle is closed, there is nowhere for the CO2 to go. It can either go into the headspace (the space in the bottle between the cap and the liquid), or it can be dissolved into the liquid. Since there is not much headspace in any given bottle, most of the beer is dissolved into the liquid itself. When the beer is opened and poured, the CO2 escapes the beer in the form of bubbles.

And that, essentially, is the start of your head. The bubbles of CO2 rise through the glass and escape through the top of your glass. Thus, the amount of bubbles that exist are a function of how highly carbonated the beer is. But that's not the end; if it ended here you would essentially have some fizzing but no accumulated head, much like carbonated water. For that, you need head retention.

Head Retention

The basic principle of head retention is that the CO2 bubbles bind to substances in the beer that form a skin around the bubble. The CO2 then escapes into the air leaving the skin at the top of the beer. Malts that are high in protein (also wheat and unmalted barley) lend comparatively more binding power for the bubbles, thus provide more head. Also, isohumulones found in hops and used for bittering contribute to formation of a nice frothy head on the top of your beer. Fats, like those found in oats and coffee and chocolate, however, destroy foam. Of note, detergents also destroy foam, so make sure you thoroughly rinse your glassware to eliminate residual soaps.

Head Stability

The viscosity of the beer, to some extent, determines how well the head sticks around. The slower the beer pours, the thicker or more body the beer has, the harder it is for the head to fall away. For example, raw and flaked barley (also, dextrin malts) in the malt bill add body without adding fats like oats would. Some beers, particularly Irish beers like Guinness, Beamish, and Smithwicks, use a mix of nitrogen with the CO2 in carbonating their beers (as a side note: this is part of what that widget in your bottle of Guinness does). The nitrogen creates smaller bubbles and a more stable head. Many people will also tell you that bottle conditioning causes the smaller bubbles, thus a more stable head. And the sticky iso-alpha-acids in hops can help cause the foam to cling to the side of the glass.

Hopefully, this went at least a little way towards answering how head is formed. For more information, check out these awesome sites: www.byo.com, BrewWiki. And, to learn how to pour your beer correctly to form that perfect head, check out Beer Advocate's instructions.

Hey Barkeep! A taxonomy of beer

I know, we usually do this on the 3rd Friday of the month. Well, we didn't get to it then, so we wanted to get in before the month was over. While an archaic distinction, the question actually gets to the heart of artificial distinctions in the beer categorization system. In the United States we take great care to classify everything that gets brewed within the confines of our classification system that is generally spelled out in the BJCP Guidelines. When we (Americans) drink a beer we first want to know its style - what kind of beer is this? Then we want to recall what the style is supposed be - what are the general characteristics that I typically find in this style of beer? Then we want to compare the current beer to the style - how well does this beer match the style? And, frequently, we rate (BA.RB.) a beer based on that comparison.

Believe it or not, this does not occur everywhere. For examples, the Belgians do not, generally, make these distinctions instead classifying between blonde or brun and blended or unblended; they also have the abbey distinctions (abbey, dubbel, tripel). Very general classifications. On the other hand, the British (and Americans) have a lot of very narrow classifications, many of which are not even internally consistent (e.g., "porters" include both ales and lagers).

Having said all that, we get to the question: What is the difference between an ale, a pilsner, and beer?

To some extent we talked about this a few posts ago when we talked about Richard Owen and his Lake Brewery. We mentioned that the type of distinctions made there (ale, porter, and beer) are largely historical. In other words, "beer" is what we now call "lager" and "porter" generally is classified as a type of ale (though more on that later).

In any event, we can start our classification system at the "phylum" level.

I. We have two phylum of drinks: fermented and unfermented. What makes something fermentable and/or fermented? Fermentation is a biologic process whereby sugars are consumed by yeast and converted to alcohol (there are other products of fermentation as well, but for our purposes we only care about alcohol).

II. The classes of fermented drinks, for our purposes, are going to be grain-based and non-grain-based. Non-grain-based fermented drinks would include wine (grape and other fruit-based wines) and most liquors (though not grain-based liquors like bourbon and scotch and some types of vodka).

III. So within the grain-based fermented drink class we have a couple of orders: distilled drinks and non-distilled drinks. Distilled drinks are also found in the non-grain-based fermented drink order.

IV. Finally, we get to the family of beers. We could have a few other non-distilled grain-based fermented drinks, too - but most of those are temporary products in the distillation process.

V. Within the family of beer we have two genus based on the type of yeast that is used: top-fermented and bottom-fermented. We generally, though not always, call the first one an "ale" and we call the second one a "lager." Every species of beer will fall within one of these two genus.

VI. We can group the species within each genus into two sub-species based on the temperature at which the yeast is allowed to convert sugars to alcohol: warm fermentations and cold fermentations. For the most part, ales ferment at warm temperatures and lagers ferment at cold temperature. There are some beers however that use ale yeast but ferment at cold(er) temperatures - examples of this are the typical porter (though not the "baltic" porter, which, confusingly, is a cold-fermented lager yeast beer) , the alt-bier, and the kolsch. There are even some lager yeasts that ferment at high(er) temperatures to create beers such as a steam beer.

So, there you have it, the taxonomy of beer.

Hey Barkeep!

Yes, it's that time of the month again. Today we are fielding questions from the peanut gallery. This question comes to us from the deep recesses of The Great Dane at Fitchburg (proof positive that we have nothing against the Dane here - we drink at all three of them constantly), but inspired by their summertime Watermelon Weisse and the general practice with wheat beer:

Why is there fruit in my beer?

A good question. What does a lemon (or in this case a huge chunk o' watermelon) really add to the weisse experience? Why is it there? Are you supposed to eat it?

I will admit that I do not like chunks of fruit in my beer, so I always ask the bartender to hold off on the fruit - I often get a crazy look, but they usually comply.

But why put it there at all? Michael Jackson (the beer one, not the gloved one) has reported that he first encountered the practice in the 1960s in Bavaria (Southern Germany along the Austrian border). He indicates that his own investigations into the matter have turned up a few reasons:
1) the style was originally farmhouse style (similar to the Belgian saison or the French bier de garde), and the fruit had been added to mask uneven product quality - I agree with Mr. Jackson in his dismissal of this as a legitimate reason: the people who would have brewed these beers would have viewed the "uneven" product as natural and would have left it as is;
2) because of all of the wheat (as much as 50% of the grain bill for these beers) these beers generate huge amounts of foamy head - lemon acts to cut the head; while Mr. Jackson dismisses this because it flattens the beer this seems pretty reasonable to me, though is probably not the entire factor behind the practice, it certainly is a benefit when pouring - particularly if the practice began because the lemons were on hand "just in case" and when the foam became unmanagable the lemon was quickly added to prevent excessive overflowing; and
3) the tartness of the lemon accentuates the charateristic fruitiness of the drink - which seems a perfectly legitimate, if not slightly subjective, reason; thus, it seems to me, the bartender should ask if you want, not put it in by default.

Finally, Mr. Jackson, notes that this practice has fallen out of favor in continental Europe for two reasons: first, that the lemon rinds contain trace amounts of pesticides, and second, that styles more in favor are less and less filtered and contain significant amounts of yeast sedimentation in the bottle - this yeast adds a creamier texture and alters the taste such that the lemon becomes more off-putting.

Personally, I do not put a lemon in my beer because I like the taste of the beer - the popular American versions (Blue Moon, et al) are already so sweet and fruity that they hardly require the additions. And, of the craft versions, I prefer the continental style: more heavily sedimented and yeast-y and find that the lemon does not accentuate the flavors.

"Peekrab Yeh!" (or, This Damned Cold)

Ostensibly, via the "Hey Barkeep!" feature on this site we answer questions about beer that others are afraid to ask. Today, though, is a bit of reverse "Hey Barkeep!" and I'm the one asking the questions. I know, with relatively high anecdotal certainty, that drinking when you have a cold is a bad idea. But, I will be the first to admit I know nothing about medicine and I am not afraid to ask.

So, the question of the day: why shouldn't I drink beer (alcohol) when I'm sick?

The hardest part about answering medical questions online is the inability to trust anything you read here. These internets are chock-full of quacks and frauds and hucksters (we'll ignore the catcalls of naval-gazing from the gallery, thank you very much). So, I will preface everything I say here by saying, if you are a doctor and what you read here is incorrect, please get a hold of us and correct us, or post a comment correcting us.

There are two primary reasons you should not drink when you are ill: 1) alcohol dehydrates you; 2) alcohol may suppress the immune system.

The American Lung Association tells me that when I have a cold, I should stay hydrated. Proper hydration ensures that mucus remains moist and easy to clear and keep the nose and throat from drying out. Beer is liquid, right? Well, not really; beer (and caffeine, apparently) dehydrates. Basically, alcohol prevents the brain from signalling the kidney to retain water. So, the kidneys actually release rather than retain liquid, which only compounds the problem.

Moreover, alcohol, particularly in quantity, inhibits the immune system. While its effects in low levels does not appear to have much effect, an amount sufficient to cause intoxication could exacerbate problems. Alcohol in such quantities can inhibit the ability of white blood cells to multiply and decreases the efficacy of white blood cells.

Not to mention, the symptoms of the common cold (congestion, weakened senses of smell and taste, runny nose, scratchy throat, etc.) inhibit the appreciation of beer. If you can't smell and taste, that $23 bottle Nøgne Ø Dark Horizon will be wasted (by the way, for those interested, this is an awesome Russian Imperial Stout and can be purchased at Steve's Liquor on University). So, please, if you are sick, put down the beer for a few days, go get some non-caffienated tea (chamomile is my weapon of choice) and take some real cold medicine.

Hey, Barkeep!

We all have stupid questions. Even the beer wizards here at MBR. As one of us admitted last month, “I wasn't the full-blooded, regional craft beer snob that you see before you today.”

What rarely is admitted is one person’s stupid question is often a lot of people’s stupid question. So we are introducing a new segment, something we like to call Hey, Barkeep! On the third Friday of every month, we will be answering some of the questions of the Beer Challenged.

We want all of you to reach the “full-blooded, regional craft beer snob” level like us! We will be gathering questions from you at bars, festivals, and, of course, e-mail and answering them at madisonbeerreview.com. So come on and send us your burning questions that you have been wanting to ask but just can’t without risking the “You’re kidding, right?” look from the real live bartender.

We promise to be gentle. Or at least funny. OK, we will try to be one or the other, but we definitely promise to answer them on Hey, Barkeep!

Our first question: Who are these Fuggles people and what does Harry Potter have to do with my beer?

Muggle. Fuggle.

Fuggle is a hop variety from England. There are a few primary hop-growing regions in the world: Germany, England, and the Yakima Valley in Washington state (there are others, but these are the primary ones). Fuggles are grown in England and in the United States. The UK version was first propagated in the early 1900s and used in traditional ales and bitters there. It is a hop still very much associated with English style ales, porters and stouts.

Hops serve two primary purpose: bittering and aroma. Before the advent of refrigeration, hops were also used for their preservative power. In fact, the India Pale Ale's signature bitterness was derived from the need to preserve the pale ale on the trip from England to India. Since the advent of refrigeration, the use of hops as a preservative have fallen off.

Today, hops are far more prevalent than they were. What would have been considered a bitter IPA during the British occupation of India in the mid-to-late 1800s, would now be considered a typical American pale ale. Bitterness, once an undesired, or at least subdued and understated, quality in beer, is now one of the predominant features of any number of styles, including most modern "American" and "Imperial" styles of beer. There are dozens of different varieties of hops. Each imparts different bitterness and aroma. For example, the Cascade hop gives many American beers a citrus-y, orange-like bitterness and aroma.

Hop bitterness is primarily measured by its content of alpha acids. In general, the greater the contentration of these acids, the more bitterness the hop can impart. Alpha acid can be as low as 3-4% and as high as 16-17%. Of course, the actual bitterness imparted is also related to how long the hop is boiled. There are any number of times during the brewing process that hops can be introduced. They can be introduced during the mash (wet-hopping); this is not common, but provides a very subtle bitterness that can sometimes be confused with roastiness or a alcohol-like sharpness. In fact, this was prevalent when hops were used entirely for their preservative powers; but has fallen out of favor, for the most part, because the bittering and aroma power of the hops is destroyed.

More commonly, the wort (liquid produced from steeped grains) is boiled after it is mashed and the hops are introduced during this boil. A boil typically lasts for 60 minutes; much longer and the wort starts lightening in strength and caramelizing. Hops introduced at the 60 minute mark fully impart their bitterness. Hops can also be introduced at any point thereafter, and the trade-off is generally between bitterness and aroma. The shorter the boil, the more aroma; the longer the boil, the more bitterness. Hops can also be introduced during the primary or more likely a secondary fermentation; this is called dry-hopping and it is entirely for aroma purposes. A hop's aroma is frequently associated with its beta acid number; the higher the beta, the more aroma the hop imparts. Beta-acid typically ranges from 2-9%.

The Fuggle is an "old-skool" hop. It has a mild, grassy, floral aroma. It's powers come mostly in the late part of the flavor profile, so it is very much considered a finishing hop. It's alpha-acid is typically in the 4-5.5% range making it on the low-end of the bitterness scale. It's beta-acid is typically around 2-3%. Thus, this hop is both mild bitterness and moderate aroma. It is considered a subtle hop these days, so it is used more for it's "old-skool-ness" than for its bittering or aroma powers. It is typically combined with other hops and adds complexity to the hop profile. If you can detect a floral, chamomile-like flavor in the aftertaste of your beer this may be from the use of Fuggles hops.

These low-alpha-acid hops have fallen out of favor among brewers in general and American craft brewers specifically. The past few seasons have been particularly bad for hops, and it is predicted that the scarcity of hops (and barley) will cause beer prices to increase. To combat this scarcity, hop growers (and users) are becoming more sophisticated in their usage and choosing to use small portions of high-alpha-acid hops instead of a large quantity of low-alpha-acid hops. These high-alpha-acid hops have also been bred to have varying levels of beta-acids and aroma profiles.

Since the Fuggle has low bitterness and a mild aroma, it's use is somewhat unnecessary. As the hop shortage gets worse, its use is likely to diminish further.