[chrisinestes]

At about 1:48 or so in this video, the fine lady says during the women's temperence movement, breweries added hops to beer so that the bitterness would keep people from drinking so much. I've never heard that. Is this true?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704629804575324503844478326.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_lifestyle

Whatcha think?

As far as the main subject of the video... sounds legit to me. Women do lots of stuff better than guys do! I've tought several people to shoot firearms. The women are usually MUCH easier to teach, and usually do much better than most guys.

Chris in Estes Park, CO

[beerocd]

I guess what I read supports your theory...

It was added because hops have a narcotic effect and will put you to sleep VS the herbs used in gruit which acted like oysters and viagra. It's true - I read it on the internet!  It's another government conspiracy to keep us down, just when we've drank enough to speak our minds - we're too tired to do anything about it.

[majorvices]

Haven't watched the said video, but hops have been added much, much longer than the temperance movement. One of the primary benefits they have been used for, besides balancing the sweetness of malt, is their naturally antiseptic qualities, so they were used to keep beer from going sour. In fact, in that case they were used to help people drink more, not less.  

[Slowbrew]

Nice thought but hops have been used a tad longer than that.   

"The first documented instance of hop cultivation was in 736, in the Hallertau  region of present-day Germany, although the first mention of the use of hops in brewing in that country was 1079.[5]  Not until the thirteenth century in Germany did hops begin to start threatening the use of gruit for flavoring. In Britain, hopped beer was first imported from Holland around 1400; however, hops were condemned in 1519 as a "wicked and pernicious weed".[citation needed] In 1471, Norwich, England  banned use of the plant in the brewing of beer, and not till 1524 were hops first grown in southeast England. It was another century before hop cultivation began in the present-day United States in 1629.["  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hops

I know, i know, Wikipedia?  Close enough for acting like I'm working today, work.

[majorvices]

I know, i know, Wikipedia?  Close enough for acting like I'm working today, work.

Well, obviously sounds a lot more factual than that video! 

[richardt]

http://www.gruitale.com/art_fall_of_gruit.htm
An interesting summary of gruit ales and the introduction of hopped beers.

[nicneufeld]

The excesses of hop usage really date to long after the temperance movement had thoroughly fizzled out.  The Brits and their original IPA were thoroughly unrelated to the US temperance movement, and heavy hop usage didn't really become commonplace in the US until the craft beer movement, which had zero to do with temperance.  Good hypothesis but I'm not sure how it could be reasonably supported.  At the zenith of US temperance I would wager that beer wasn't particularly lupulin saturated.