PRYSMA® Hops Explained: A New Way to Hop Your Home Brew
Hop products have changed a lot over the last few years, giving brewers new ways to build aroma, flavour and overall hop expression in their beer. One of the newest examples is PRYSMA® from BarthHaas®, a liquid hop product designed to give brewers another option when working with modern hop character.
In this week’s video, we’re joined by Jo Love from BarthHaas® to take a proper look at the PRYSMA® range. We cover what it is, how it is produced, how it differs from traditional hop products and where it might fit into your home brewing.
We also put it to the test with a side-by-side tasting of three beers brewed with and without PRYSMA®, comparing the difference in aroma, flavour and overall hop expression in the glass.
What this video covers
What PRYSMA® is
How PRYSMA® is produced
How it differs from traditional hop pellets
How it compares with other liquid hop extracts
Where PRYSMA® can be useful in home brewing
Side-by-side tasting of beers brewed with and without PRYSMA®
How it could fit into hazy pales, West Coast IPAs and other hop-forward styles
What is PRYSMA®?
PRYSMA® is a new hop product from BarthHaas® that gives brewers another way to add hop-derived flavour and aroma to beer.
Rather than using hop pellets in the usual way, PRYSMA® is supplied as a liquid product. That makes it easy to dose, easy to experiment with and useful when you want to add specific flavour impact without adding large amounts of hop matter to the beer.
For home brewers, this is where things get interesting. Many modern beer styles rely heavily on late hopping and dry hopping, but large hop additions can come with trade-offs. Hop losses, heavy sediment, vegetal character and reduced yield can all become more noticeable as hop rates increase.
PRYSMA® does not replace every use of traditional hops, but it gives brewers another tool to work with. It can be used to build, boost or fine-tune flavour and aroma depending on the beer you are making.
How is PRYSMA® different from hop pellets?
Hop pellets are still one of the most important ingredients in modern brewing. They are familiar, versatile and effective across the whole process, from bittering additions through to whirlpool and dry hop use.
PRYSMA® works differently because it is not being added as plant material. As a liquid hop product, it allows brewers to introduce hop character in a more concentrated format.
That can be especially useful in beers where you want plenty of hop expression but do not necessarily want to keep increasing the dry hop charge. In hop-forward beers, there is often a balance to strike between intensity, drinkability and practicality. More hops do not always mean a better beer.
PRYSMA® gives brewers another way to approach that balance.
Where could PRYSMA® fit into home brewing?
PRYSMA® is particularly interesting for modern hop-forward styles.
Hazy pale ales, New England IPAs, West Coast IPAs, session pales and fruit-led beers are all obvious places to experiment. These are beers where aroma and flavour are central to the drinking experience, and where small changes in hop expression can make a noticeable difference.
It may also be useful when you want to lift a specific flavour note, increase aroma impact, or add hop character without adding more hop debris to the fermenter or keg.
For home brewers, the best way to understand a product like this is to use it in a beer you already know well. Brew something familiar, keep the rest of the recipe simple, and use PRYSMA® as a controlled addition. That way you can properly judge what it brings to the finished beer.
Putting PRYSMA® to the test
To move beyond the theory, we finished the video with a side-by-side tasting.
We tasted three beers brewed with and without PRYSMA®, comparing the aroma, flavour and overall hop expression between each version. This is a really useful way to understand what a product like this can do, because the difference is much easier to judge when the beers are tasted next to each other.
Does the aroma feel brighter? Does the flavour come through more clearly? Does it change how the beer drinks? Does it feel integrated in the finished beer?
Those are the sorts of questions we wanted to answer in the glass.
PRYSMA® as a new tool for hop-forward brewing
PRYSMA® is not about replacing traditional hops altogether. Pellets, leaf hops and other hop products all have their place, and each brings something different to the brewing process.
The exciting thing about PRYSMA® is that it gives home brewers another option.
If you brew hazy pales, West Coast IPAs, modern pale ales or fruit-forward beers, it is a product worth understanding. Used carefully, it could help you build more expressive hop character, reduce the need for very heavy dry hop additions, or simply give you a new way to experiment with flavour.
As always, the best results will come from good recipe design, careful brewing and proper tasting. PRYSMA® is another tool in the kit, and this video is a great introduction to where it might fit.
Watch the full video to see Jo Love from BarthHaas® explain the PRYSMA® range and to hear our thoughts from the side-by-side tasting.
