Inciting the Hop

Hopheads, rejoice! A new device promises to take that lupulin you love so well to a whole-hopped new level.

It’s called the Hop Inciter 3000. The contraption looks and works a lot like a French press, but whereas a French press steeps coffee grounds in hot water, the Hop Inciter steeps whole flower hops in freshly poured beer. And just like more time with the coffee in the French press means a stronger cup of joe, the Hop Inciter 3000 lets the thirsty patron decide how long to infuse the extra dose of hops in the beer by letting the lupulin languish longer in the press.

Designed by the folks at Bull & Bush Pub and Brewery in Denver (which so far is the only place you can buy one), the Hop Inciter was conceived after a trip to a Colorado hop yard.

“[A] friend of the Bull & Bush Brewery, Lance Hanson, planted hops at his Demeter-certified biodynamic farm, Jack Rabbit Hill in Hotchkiss, Colorado,” says Erik Peterson, “minister of progress” at the Bull & Bush. “When I went to visit Lance, he showed me the hop fields. … I was blown away!

“I wanted our guests at the Bull & Bush Brewery to be able to experience the different hops first-hand. That’s when we decided to design a ‘Whole Hop Infusion’ process, where people get to see and smell what whole hops are like and experience how they affect the beer.”

Here’s how it works: A beer lover orders one of the Hop Inciter 3000s filled with 20 ounces of whichever Bull & Bush beer he or she wants to infuse, and it arrives at the table. The patron chooses their hops—Chinook, Cascade, Crystal, Northern Brewer or Nugget—and a pre-measured amount is added to the vessel, and the top is affixed to the press. The plunger on the press is pushed down to just below the level of beer in the vessel to start the steeping, and a timer is started.

Just how much time until the little green gems work their magic?

“We suggest somewhere around five minutes, depending on the style of beer,” Peterson says, adding that every minute that goes by will add a greater hop aroma and bitterness to the beer.

“We have gone as long as 20 minutes on the steep time,” he says. “The bitterness is so intense that you get an overwhelming bitterness that surrounds the sides of your tongue and tingles the back of your throat like pepper.”

After the timer goes off, the plunger is pushed, sending the hops down to the bottom of the Hop Inciter 3000 and leaving the freshly hopped beer ready to be poured into a glass and enjoyed.

While the general concept is similar to Randall the Enamel Animal, created by Dogfish Head, Peterson says the Hop Inciter 3000 is a completely different, well, animal.

“This process is all about DIY—doing it yourself,” he says. “The guest is in total control of this new way of hopping beer. It also allows for a lot of experimentation, since you are only hopping 20 ounces at a time. With a Randall, which is an amazing invention that we often use to add all kinds of different flavors to our beers, it has to be connected to a keg and doesn’t allow guests to tweak the outcome.”

And while Bull & Bush maintains that its beers are created just perfect without the additional hops, Peterson says the Hop Inciter 3000 (literally) brings something new to the table.

“We stand behind the fact that our brewmaster has created and hopped every one of our beers to perfection, and this is certainly not something to undermine their phenomenal work,” Peterson says. “That said, we recognize that every beer drinker has a different palate, and everyone loves to experiment. We just want to provide a fun and educational experience for our guests.” ■