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==Characterizing Hop Flavor and Aroma==
[[File:Hop spider chart.jpg|thumb|upright=12.0|Image created by Øystein Meiningen, based on "The Language of Hops: How to Assess Hop Flavor in Hops and Beer." Drexler et al. MBAA Technical Quarterly. Vol 54 2017. This file is permitted to be downloaded and used as a spider graph background.]][[File:Hop flavor wheel.jpg|thumb|upright=12.0|Image created by Øystein Meiningen, based on "The Language of Hops: How to Assess Hop Flavor in Hops and Beer." Drexler et al. MBAA Technical Quarterly. Vol 54 2017. This file is permitted to be downloaded and used as a flavor wheel.]]
Hops provide a wide array of aromas and flavors to beer. These flavors and aromas are variety and crop dependent. Hop farmers often provide their own hop flavor and aroma descriptors independently of each other, but attempts to standardize these descriptors have been made as far back as 1756, and as recently as 1978. More recently, [http://www.mbaa.com/publications/tq/tqPastIssues/2017/Pages/TQ-54-1-0143-01.aspx Drexler et al. (2017)] worked with a perfumer to establish 12 major categories of hop flavor descriptors. Each major category contains more specific descriptors. These descriptors can be measured on a 0-10 scale, and a spider graph can be drawn to represent them. Drexler et al. (2017) proposed that even though expensive gas chromatography is available for hops which measures specific compounds, sensory analysis is still the best way to quantify how different varieties of hops actually smell and taste in beer <ref name="Drexler_2017">[http://www.mbaa.com/publications/tq/tqPastIssues/2017/Pages/TQ-54-1-0143-01.aspx The Language of Hops: How to Assess Hop Flavor in Hops and Beer. Georg Drexler, Elisabeth Wiesen, Mark Zunkel, Sebastian Hinz, Alicia Muñoz Insa, Victor Algazzali, Tim Kostelecky, and Christina Schönberger. 1. Joh. Barth & Sohn GmbH & Co. KG, Nuremberg, Germany. 2. John I. Haas Inc., Yakima, WA, U.S.A. MBAA Technical Quarterly. Vol. 54, no. 1. 2017. Pgs. 34–37. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1094/TQ-54-1-0143-01.]</ref>.