Hops are used to “bitter” beer.  What you will read elsewhere is that hops counterbalance the malt (which is essentially a sugar) and keep the beer from being too sweet.  This is true…sorta.  Without hops, beer would taste somewhat like overripe fruit and the flavors contributed by the yeast, perhaps overpowering.  Hops contributes an acid that evens all of this out and leaves the beer tasting as you know it.  Beers may be very lightly hopped such as Hefeweizen (see our Hefeweizen Ale Description) or very heavily hopped such as a Double India Pale Ale (IPA).

Which level of hopping you prefer is entirely down to personal tastes.  Other means of processing the beer can yield similar results.  Beer sometimes bittered with fruit or spices.  The malt may be roasted to a greater degree and thus need less hopping.  Finally, more heavily carbonated styles of beer are typically not hopped as heavily.  

Hops also contribute aroma to the beer.  The hop is the stamen of a flower and as such hops smell like flowers.

If a hop is being used to bitter the beer, it is added at the beginning of the boiling the wort undergoes.  The heat draws more bittering acid out of the hop during the time its boiled.  If the hop is being used to contribute to the beer’s aroma, it is added at the end of the boil.  It is boiled briefly and the smell comes out of it but not the acid.  Sometimes hops aren’t boiled at all, this is known as dry hopping.  This is done 

mostly for an aromatic effect.  Hop varities basically fall into two camps: bittering and aromatic.  Fresh hops look like  somewhat like leafy green balls and may be used without further processing.   However to preserve them, they are typically dried, compressed into little pellets (e.g. like rabbit food), refrigerated, and often stored in scent preserving bag.

Each region of the world has its own distinct hops varieties, of which they are quite proud and considered better than all other varities  Local growers will tell you they grow the best hops anywhere.