Malt-Forward Beer Styles: Exploring Hop-Free Brewing

While hops are a defining ingredient in beer, adding a distinct flavour and aroma, some beers are made without them. Hops are added to beer to give it a bitter taste, but they also act as a preservative. Before hops, beer was flavoured using gruit, a blend of herbs and spices, and some brewers still use this method today. Beers without hops tend to be very sweet, but there are some options for those who prefer a less sweet option. One option is to brew your own malt beer at home, using green malted corn, bay leaves, coriander, citrus, and black tea instead of hops. Commercially, Sam Adams Doppelbock is a malt-centric craft beer with minimal hops.

Malt Beers with No Hops

Malt-forward ales and lagers

Malt-forward beers highlight the ingredient that gives colour, ABV, and a strong dose of character to the drink. For instance, the North Peak Pale Ale is a lighter session beer that has a beautiful malt structure that carries the beer. It is delicate and complex, with a base of 2-row, wheat, and Vienna, as well as some flaked adjuncts and acidulated malt to create a smooth, dry finish.

Another example is the CraftRoots Red Rye Ale, which showcases several malts at the forefront. These include chocolate malt, wheat, Munich, base malt, and rye. The rye adds a touch of spiciness, while the beer also has a caramel raisin character.

The Dovetail Vienna-Style Lager is another malt-forward beer with a straightforward, no-frills approach. It is amber-coloured and loaded with Vienna malts and Styrian Golding hops. It is slightly sweet and known for its malty, caramel flavour, making it perfect for chilly fall nights.

For those seeking a darker, maltier option, the Burial Brewing lager from Asheville is an excellent choice. Almost as dark as a stout, it is loaded with toasted oak, caramel malt, and bready flavours. It has complex notes of toasty malts, freshly baked bread, slightly bitter coffee, and floral hops.

These are just a few examples of malt-forward ales and lagers, which can be a great alternative for those seeking less bitterness in their beer or wishing to highlight the flavourful notes that malt contributes to the brewing process.

Gruit or herbal alternatives

Gruit, a blend of bitter herbs and flowers, was used to flavour beer long before hops. Gruit is composed of a wide variety of herbs and flowers, including dandelion, burdock root, marigold, horehound, ground ivy, and heather. Brewer Annick De Splenter has revamped this mix and branded it. Her gruit beer, Gentse Gruut, replaces hops with traditional herbs and spices and comes in blonde, white, amber, brown, and inferno varieties.

Gruit is not the only herbal alternative to hops. Brewers have experimented with a variety of herbs and spices to replace hops, including mugwort, wormwood, yarrow, juniper berries, coriander, orange peel, chamomile, and white sage. Brewing gruit-style beers with these herbs can be a way to create hop-free beers.

Another alternative is to use tea. Tea has similar properties to hops, and when boiled for a long time, it can provide bitterness, and less brewing time will give flavour and aroma. Brewers have used green tea, black tea, and even bud light clone tea to create interesting flavours.

For those looking for a hop-free beer, there are a variety of options available, including herbal blends, tea infusions, and even beers made with spruce tips or redwood branches.

Malt-accented beers

• Pale Lager
• Helles Lager
• Amber Lager
• Vienna Lager
• Märzen/Oktoberfest
• Helles Bock

If you're looking for a malt-accented beer without hops, you may want to try brewing malt beer at home. You can replace the hops with green malted corn, bay leaves, coriander, citrus, and black tea.

Malt-driven beers

Malt-forward beers can be difficult to find as the popularity of IPAs has led to most brewers increasing the hops in all their styles. However, there are some malt-centric craft beers, such as Sam Adams Doppelbock, which has won several awards for its blend of caramel, chocolate, barley, spices, and licorice. Although it contains hops, you barely taste them.

Stouts and porters are also well-hopped beverages, so if you are avoiding hops, you may want to avoid these too. However, there is one exception: Nitro. It's a creamy milk stout carbonated with nitrogen, and the fizzy mix of coffee and mocha kill any hoppy traces this dark drink may have.

If you are looking for a traditionally styled ale, you could try Fraoch, a Scottish brew from Williams Brothers that uses heather flowers, malted barley, and sweet gale. It has an ABV of 5%. Or, for something more contemporary, try Fat Tire. Both ales have some hops, but the other herbs and flavours overpower them, giving them a distinct character.

Other malt-forward beer styles include Vienna, Helles, Munich/Oktoberfest, Mild, Porter, Cream Ale, Dortmunder, Altbier, and Mexican Lager.

Home-brewed malt beer

Ingredients and Equipment

To brew malt beer at home, you will need the following ingredients:

• Water (preferably spring water, but filtered tap water can be used)
• Sugar (cane sugar, brown sugar, molasses, or honey)
• Yeast (wild, baker's, or brewer's)
• Herbs, spices, and other edible botanicals (e.g. mugwort, yarrow, or alehoof)
• Malted grain (barley)

In terms of equipment, you will need:

• A 2- to 3-gallon cooking pot
• A 2- to 3-gallon open-mouthed container (glass, ceramic, or food-grade plastic) with a towel or cheesecloth
• A 1-gallon glass or plastic jug with an airlock or balloon
• A vessel with a spigot for bottling (or a funnel for careful pouring)
• Bottles (swing-top are ideal)

The Brewing Process

• Bring 1 gallon of water to a rolling boil in a stockpot.
• Stir in 1 pound of sugar (cane, brown, molasses, or a combination). You can also use dry malt extract (DME) for a more "beer-like" result.
• Squeeze in the juice of half a lemon.
• Add 2 teaspoons of dried or 4-5 sprigs of fresh herbs (e.g. mugwort, yarrow, or alehoof). Experiment with different herbs and spices!
• Boil for half an hour, then cool the wort by placing the pot in an ice-water bath. This step is important to prevent bacterial spoilage.
• When the wort reaches 60-80°F or feels warm to the touch, pour it into your 2- to 3-gallon container.
• Add 1 teaspoon of bread or brewer's yeast and wait 12-24 hours for fermentation to begin.
• Alternatively, for wild fermentation, add 1/2 cup of fresh or dried organic fruit, cover, and stir daily until the solution fizzes (around 3-5 days).
• Strain the solution through a sieve or cheesecloth into a 1-gallon jug, topping it off with fresh water.
• Insert an airlock or stretch a balloon over the opening to act as a barrier against outside air and allow carbon dioxide to escape.
• Allow the beer to ferment for about two weeks or until carbon dioxide activity stops.
• Prime the beer for carbonation by adding 1 ounce of sugar. Then, bottle it and place it in a cool, dark corner.
• Wait about two to three weeks before opening your homemade malt beer!

Tips and Tricks

• The amount of sugar added affects the alcohol level: 1 pound of sugar in 1 gallon of water typically produces 5% to 5.5% alcohol.
• Be cautious with herbs and spices, as they can easily become overpowering. Start small and experiment from there!
• Bittering herbs like mugwort and yarrow should be added early in the boil for maximum effect.
• Aromatic herbs and spices like cinnamon and cloves should be added in the last 5 minutes of the boil to preserve their volatile oils and aroma.
• Brewing can be as simple or complex as you like, so feel free to experiment with different ingredients and techniques!

Frequently asked questions