Breakdown of Ich braue das Bier mit viel Hopfen und Malz.
ich
I
und
and
viel
much / a lot
das Bier
the beer
mit
with
der
who, which, that (relative pronoun; die, das)
brauen
to brew
der Hopfen
the hops
das Malz
the malt
Questions & Answers about Ich braue das Bier mit viel Hopfen und Malz.
How can I turn the nouns Hopfen and Malz into the adjectives "hoppy" and "malty" using the suffixes from this lesson?
You can use the suffix -ig to turn these brewing ingredients into adjectives. For "malty", you simply add the suffix to get malzig. For "hoppy", you drop the -en ending from the noun to form the stem, resulting in hopfig.
Why isn't viel declined here? Shouldn't it be vielem because of the dative preposition mit?
When viel (much / a lot of) is used with singular, uncountable nouns (mass nouns) like Hopfen and Malz, it generally stays undeclined. You only decline it when it comes before countable, plural nouns (like mit vielen Leuten, meaning "with many people") or when it takes the place of a noun.
In English, "hops" is plural. Why is Hopfen singular in this German sentence?
In German, der Hopfen is treated as a singular mass noun. It behaves just like the English words for other crops, such as "wheat" or "barley". You refer to the ingredient as a single, uncountable concept rather than counting individual "hops".
I've heard the phrase Hopfen und Malz in another context. Is it part of a common idiom?
Yes! The German idiom Da ist Hopfen und Malz verloren (literally: "Hops and malt are lost there") is a very popular saying. It means that something or someone is a "lost cause". It comes from the idea of a brewer realizing that a batch of beer has gone bad and the ingredients were wasted.
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