This fall, have a bottle of "limited edition" craft beer

The National Day holiday has just passed, and beer is inevitable in every gathering with family, friends, and classmates. As the oldest alcoholic beverage in human history, almost everyone is familiar with several beer brands; they can name dark beer, white beer, and yellow beer; and more and more people regard tasting craft beer as a hobby and enjoyment.

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But do you think that summer, when the World Cup is held, is the best season for drinking beer? Wrong! In fact, autumn is the season for craft beer.

Why is craft beer good in autumn?

For craft beer, the end of summer and the beginning of autumn are definitely of special significance. In addition to the famous Munich Oktoberfest, there are also various seasonal flavor beers on the market, such as fresh hop craft beer. Fresh hops are boiled and brewed directly. Whether it is floral, fruity, citrus or bitter, this flower is the key to brewing a unique aroma and flavor for each beer, with a rich and layered aroma.

Fresh hops in soft bags, also known as wet hops.

Generally, beer is brewed with dried hops, but only when the hops are harvested every year can there be an opportunity to brew directly with fresh hops to produce limited edition craft beer. It can be said that brewing with fresh hops is the ideal and pursuit of every brewer and brewery. In addition to higher quality, brewing with wet hops is difficult and even more dangerous.

Challenging and precious craft beer

The brewing technique using fresh hops is called wet hopping, which requires that the hops be put into brewing within 48 hours of picking, and the amount used is far more than that of dry hops. The brewing difficulty is so great that this type of beer often loses the championship in beer competitions.

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In addition, ideally, wet hops need to be brewed on the same day they are harvested, not only to ensure freshness, but also because fresh hops are very unstable. When wet hops are left alone, they can cause spontaneous combustion during the process of squeezing and decomposition. In 2006, flaming hops ignited a 40,000-square-foot warehouse in Yakima, Washington, which accounts for 4% of the country's beer production. Hops were also considered the culprit in another fire in Yakima in 2017, which caused more than $30,000 in economic losses.

Image from: www.rogue.com

High risk can't dispel the idea of ​​craft brewers to obtain fresh hops locally and brew these precious beers. Last fall, the Oregon-based Rogue Brewery, yes, the brewery that once brewed the exotic "Beard Beer", began to try to use the Internet Connected Logistics Platform (ICLP) to help transport fresh hops. The system consists of a mobile gateway equipped with an Intel Atom processor, Intel low-power design sensor tags, Intel R&D wireless sensor networks, and software.

IoT technology escorts hops

Intel and Rogue Brewery conducted an experiment using ICLP technology to transport hops, shipping fresh hops from Independence, Oregon, about 60 miles south of Intel's Hillsboro campus, to Newport Brewery, nearly 80 miles west on the Oregon coast.