Hops

Does hops grow in Texas? The Hill Country has no hop fields of any significance—it's too hot and too dry. The hops used by Texas brewers travel in from the Pacific Northwest, mainly the Yakima Valley in Washington State. The US currently grows hops on about 17,000 hectares and supplies roughly 40 percent of the world's alpha acid.

Alpha acid is the compound in hops responsible for bitterness in beer. To make a beer bitter, you boil hops in the wort for a long time. For aroma, you add them late or even after fermentation. These two approaches determine whether a beer smells of bread and caramel or of citrus and resin.

Shiner's dark lager takes a restrained approach. The bitterness supports the malt without overpowering it, and the hops stay in the background. Spoetzl doesn't publicly disclose the variety, so this flavor description is as far as we can go. Drink a dark lager and you'll taste the malt first, the hops only afterward.

The craft side tells a different story. From the Pacific Northwest come varieties like Cascade, dating back to 1972, as well as Centennial, Citra, Mosaic, and Simcoe. They deliver grapefruit, mango, or pine and define the American pale ales and IPAs that Texas brewers now pour alongside their lagers. Jester King takes a different path, building its beers around yeast and aging rather than hops.