Beer lovers: Send up the emergency flares! Light the beacons! Sound the alarms! Did you know we are in the midst of a hops shortage?!

Hops are one of the central ingredients in all beers, essential in giving beer its bitter, floral, and sometimes citrus flavors and aromas. They’ve been a part of the recipe for centuries, but their value has changed over the past 40 years. Ever since 1975, when San Francisco-based craft-brewing pioneer Anchor Brewing Company released its hop-heavy Liberty Ale, craft brewers across the country have competed in making their own version of a hop-heavy, super-aromatic brew.

Moneywatch, a worldwide, economics-focused branch of CBS News, reported in May on the rising price of hops. It seems the “big boys” of the beer industry like Anheuser-Busch tend to hog up the hops sales, and that could translate into a hops war. This is a scary proposition for craft-brew fans, as those beers tend to use more hops and are already pricier than their mass-marketed counterparts.

What is it about hops that has brewers buying up as much of the little flower as possible — and at increasingly high costs to boot?

Tom Acitelli, the author of The Audacity of Hops: The History of America’s Craft Beer Revolution, recently blogged about Anchor’s role in developing an American alternative to European hops. Every hop-heavy beer in America owes something to Anchor’s discovery of the Cascade hop, an American-grown and cultivated hop that packs on the bitterness. In the decades since, many brewers have followed Anchor’s lead, moving the market away from hops grown in just Bavaria and Flanders, and opening up an ever-more-diverse crop of hops. These hops lend a complexity of flavor that can make a beer unique and stand out from a crowd.

Acitelli asserts that America’s obsession with mega-hopped beers has caused it to become a gimmick. As all sales tricks tend to go, once moderately-hopped beers became popular, breweries started to take the trend over the top. Hence, the creation of hop-heavy beers with crazy names like Terrapin Beer Co.’s Hopsecutioner I.P.A., Victory’s Hop Devil, and Ithaca Brewing Co.’s Flower Power I.P.A. There is also a hop-crazy beer called The Audacity of Hops, but it is not directly related to Acitelli’s book.

The bitterness of a beer, imparted by its hops, is measured by International Bitterness Units (IBU). Beers with high IBU will have an extremely noticeable floral aroma and will leave the tongue with a dry, bitter finish. India pale ales are the most readily identified as hop-heavy, but barley wines and stouts are other styles that feature high IBU. Beers with less than 20 IBU will hardly have any noticeable hops flavor: think of your light, wheat beers, like Blue Moon, which only has about 10 IBU. Most beers on the market land somewhere between 20 and 45 IBU; Heineken and Stella Artois, for example, hover in the 25 IBU range.

Anything over 45 IBU is considered hop-heavy. This is a bit shocking when you think that some beers, like Stone’s Ruination I.P.A., are reaching 100 and beyond on the IBU scale. “Ruination” seems an appropriate name for a beer that will more than likely ruin your taste buds for anything that follows it; it’s best to save that one for last call. But Stone does not stand at the pinnacle of mainstream hop peddlers. What may be the Holy Grail for hop lovers, Dogfish Head’s 120 Minute I.P.A., weighs in at a staggering 120 IBU — that is an insane amount of bitterness. Be ready for some mouth puckering after that one, plus it has a 15 to 20 percent ABV, so watch out.

Beers that rank high in IBU are also likely to have the hop flavor sit on the tongue, creating an aftertaste that lingers. Some beer drinkers who don’t know what to expect when indulging in a beer like 120 Minute I.P.A. may want to be cautious on that first sip or else they’re likely to contort their faces into a grotesque grimace, like in those old Keystone Light bitter-beer-face commercials.

So far, all this talk makes the proposition of having a hopped-up beer sound awful, which isn’t always the case. So what is it that attracts brewers to push bitterness to new limits?

Part of it, as CBS Moneywatch stated, is simply cashing in on a trend. Pushing the limits happens in every fad until the market is absolutely oversaturated. And the trend isn’t just confined to the United States either. Rob Willock of the United Kingdom’s Morning Advertiser feels this craze will follow the course of past fads: once the price of hops gets too out of hand, a new movement will arise in the brewing world that focuses heavily on some other ingredient or method of brewing. I mean, remember when Zima and Smirnoff Ice malt beverages were the in-thing 15 to 20 years ago? Zima closed up shop in 2008, and Smirnoffs aren’t exactly flying off the shelf anymore.

There may already be signs of the shift away from hops, as a number of domestic and international brewers are starting to revitalize the old Belgian style of beer known as saison or farmhouse ale. Check out Boulevard Brewing Company’s Saison-Brett or Ommegang’s Hennepin Ale; both are delicious and worthy new-world saisons that pay homage to the Belgian classic Saison DuPont. And breweries worried about the increasing cost of hops can breathe a sigh of relief if they chose to brew a saison, as most fall in the 20 to 35 IBU range.

Another upside to highly-hopped beers is that they drink a lot slower. For most of us, this translates to less beer being drunk in one sitting. Most beers with high IBU are full of flavor to savor and carry a weight that make them hard to chug. Compare that to Keystone Light, which clocks in at a measly 15 IBU with next to no aftertaste: before you know it, you’ve had six or seven of them in a short span of time and you’ll be needing to hail a cab to get home.

Plus, not all hop-heavy beers leave you with an extreme bitterness. Some brewers have very skillfully blended hops, malts, ryes, and wheat to perfect a unique flavor that doesn’t rely on pucker-face or cotton-mouth. While many of the super-hoppy beers on the craft-brewing market will likely only appeal to hop heads, some are easily enjoyed by all types of beer connoisseurs.

I sometimes enjoy the thrill of seeing how much my taste buds can handle, but I will more than likely settle for a beer that is well balanced. Here are some that I personally recommend:

1. Troubadour Magma Belgian Tripel I.P.A. (50 IBU) — One of my all-time favorites, this wine-like, well-balanced beer employs the dry-hopping method to create a fruit-forward and flowery beer that doesn’t destroy your taste buds.
2. Dogfish Head 90 Minute I.P.A. (90 IBU) — This beer will have a little more hop punch to it, but it has a creaminess that makes it smooth and balances out the hops so the bitterness doesn’t sit on your tongue in the aftertaste. This beer pairs well with with food and is, according to Esquire Magazine, “quite possibly the best I.P.A. in America.” Ratebeer.com users have even given it a 100 percent rating.
3. La Chouffe Houblon Dobbelen I.P.A. Tripel (59 IBU) — This beer is not super-hopped and shows a great deal of craftsmanship in balancing the hop flavor of an American I.P.A. with that of a standard Belgian strong ale. Smooth, yet with hints of its power and fruit flavors peeking through, this is a great beer to get you started on the road to higher IBU — if you dare.
4. Breckenridge 471 Small Batch I.P.A. (70 IBU) — Hailing from Denver, this double I.P.A. is a great example of how a high level of hops can be manipulated from overly bitter to being subtly sweet. Breckenridge uses a blend of three different hops and four sweet malts to balance this beer — definitely worth checking out.

So, if you are a hop head, it’s best to indulge in these potent beers while they last. If the hops war is to begin, you don’t want to wait until the price elevates to experience these treats.