Quote Originally Posted by NewEnglander View Post
That's something I've never heard before. Hops have been used for centuries to counteract the sweetness of malt (ie bitter the brew) and also help preserve beers. But if by "traditional" you mean ancient, proto-beers like gruit then it'd be true, though the mixture of herbs used in those beverages had the same function as hops, which hadn't been domesticted yet, I believe.

Or it this just might be another case of differences in American vs British English...
I'm not a great expert on alcohol. I may well have picked up on a few things in visits to breweries and distorted the facts. It was in my mind that even now-a-days "real ales" don't use hops in the process. My brain may have made that up though, as there's a small section that never gets used and needs to think of something to keep itself occupied