From the lightest of light logger to the darkest imperial style, one thing that nearly all styles of beer have in common is a particular characteristic that can range from soft and mild to abrasive and sharp, and it serves as a counterbalance to a beer's natural sweetness.

You're listening to the Brullosophy podcast, I'm your host Marshall Schott, and in this episode

contributor Matt Del Fiaco is with me to talk about bitterness in beer.

We pretty infrequently talk about bitterness in the same way I think that we talk about

like flavor hops and dry hopping like it's all about like oh dry hop dry hop in a series of three days

and then seven days or do a whirlpool at this degree or that degree and we talk

about it really deeply detailed but we really rarely talk about bitterness and it's kind of weird because bitterness is

it's probably my favorite Hop edition not just for the sake that it provides that

backbone but because most of the styles I brew don't have a super hop forward

flavor component. So I think there's just so much more nuance and so much more depth

that we can get into in terms of bitterness that we I think we talk about sometimes but you really have to hunt for it yeah I'm with you man for such a quintessential aspect of beer bitterness you kind of have to have it now you know obviously there's the exception of sour beer. I know a lot of people who, you know, who might make a Berliner vice or something with no hop

additions or just to be traditional, they'll throw in like one pellet or whatever.

But for the most part, you know, bitterness is kind of a requirement for beer and I feel like you know we all talk about bitterness and beer like you mentioned but it doesn't get the love that these other hop additions do I actually remember brewing my first IPA.

This was way back in like April of 2003

and intentionally making it

as bitter as possible.

That was the aim at least in my home brewing circles back then. It had nothing to do with

hot flavor or aroma, at least as far as I recall. It had everything to do with making a really bitter

beer and proving to your friends that you could actually stomach this stuff, right?

And so, actually for fun, I brewed this beer again a few years ago. I think it clocked in,

you know, Beer Smith said it was like 135 I. B. You, it was absolutely terrible and reminded me

just how much times have changed in terms of hops when it came to be, or at least in terms of my understanding but yeah I agree

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