What do hops actually do in beer?
Show answer & explanation
Answer: Add bitterness, aroma, and preserve it
Add bitterness, aroma, and preserve it ✓ — Correct! Hops pull triple duty: they add bitterness to balance the malt's sweetness, aroma (the citrus and pine you smell), and they preserve the beer by fighting spoilage microbes. They're the flower of a climbing plant, Humulus lupulus.
Add the alcohol — Wrong. Alcohol comes from yeast eating the grain's sugars, not from hops. Hops flavor and preserve the beer, but they don't make it boozy.
Make the bubbles — Wrong. The bubbles are CO2 produced by yeast during fermentation. Hops have nothing to do with carbonation.
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