Shopping for the craft beer enthusiast in your life can be a daunting task, especially if you aren't sure what their favourite hops are!
Maybe your beer lover doesn't know either. Not to worry, here are our recommendations for picking the right item they are sure to love
And FYI, if we don't have a design featuring their favourite hop, or you're not sure about the colours of a certain design - We take design requests.
1) Find out their favourite beer + brewery
It stands to reason that their favourite hop is featured in their favourite beers. You might know it from the tap at their local pub, or have gifted them a beer in the past. Once you've narrowed it down, you can search for the beer on a site like untappd, or directly in Google to figure out which hops it features.
2) Real or Craft?
Here at hop-art we love all beers, but beer drinkers in the UK can often be split into two camps; Real Ale, or Craft Beer. Whilst there's no hard-and-fast rule about which hops either will prefer, it's more common to find the more subtle flavours of home-grown hops, such as bramling cross in Real Ale, and the punchier notes of U.S grown hops, such as citra or cascade in Craft Beer. Learn more about the difference between the two beer types here.
3) Brewers have favourites
If you can't figure out which hop to choose, citra, cascade and mosaic typically head up the most popular hops in modern IPA's.
4) Most beers have multiple hops
It's not unheard of for beers to only use a single hop, but most commonly brewers elect for a combination of different hops to produce the unique flavours of their beer.
5) Ask them which hop
This might seem like an obvious one, but if the opportunity arises, try and steer the conversation in the right direction and simply ask them what their favourite hop(s) are. Be warned though, depending on the person, the response to this question might be more detailed than you expected (or wanted).
Still can't decide?
All of our designs are inspired by the most popular hops used by brewers today, if your gift recipient likes beer then it's a good chance they will appreciate any of the designs on offer - So just pick which design you like the most!
