In the pursuit of popular tropical aromas, it’s become fashionable to harness thiols and figure out how to maximize their contribution from hops. Ironically, that attention to thiol expression has yet to focus much on the ingredient that’s most responsible for it: malted barley.
Research is ongoing in all areas, but so far, hops and genetically modified “thiolized” yeasts are the tools that brewers are employing most often in the thiol workshop. However, a few scientists and brewers are discovering just how powerful a lever malt can be in this realm.