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Hops??


JarrodN

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Hi I want to start experimenting with hops but a little unsure of the of certain terminology.

I'm gathering say 15g cascade @ 30 mins and 5g centennial @ 15 means to bring the cascade to the boil for 15 mins then add centennial and boil for another 15 then strain after?? but what is meant by 'steeped' and 'dry hopping'? If I were to guess I'd say dry hopping is adding the hops straight to the fermenter but would this then mean it would have to be filtered out?

 

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Hi Jarrod,

You are right on about the timing thing. The longer you boil the hops the more bitter it gets. Bittering hops would be boiled for 45- 90mins, flavouring hops 10-30mins, and aroma 5mins to flame out(adding the hops when you remove the brew kettle from the heat).

 

You can strain the hops out or not. I find that if you boil the hops it will settle out completely. You can also make a little hops bundle out of cheesecloth and fish it out of the brew at the end of the boil.

 

"Steeping" is another technique where you make a hop tea by steeping hops on a few litres of boiled water for a set time then adding it to the FV.

 

"dry hopping" is adding hops directly to the FV after fermentation is under way or complete. I usually dry hop as soon as the high krausen settles back. When dry hopping i recommend you use a cheesecloth bundle or a tea ball because the hops likes to float around forever and you end up with floaties[bandit] in your bottles. this technique is only to add aroma to the brew. It is very easy to do and for the effort it is well worth it.

 

Good Luck and happy hopping[roll]

 

Chad

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Steeping generally means you take the brew kettle off the heat at the end,put in your hops (I use hop sacks),put a lid on the kettle,& time your steep for 5-10 minutes. Also referred to as flame out additions. Hop teas,imo,are best done at the beginning of the boil. Just when the water starts to boil,then sock up your hops & toss them in for 15 minutes.

Then remove them & proceed with your recipe. Worked quite well in my pale ale in the recipe resource.

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  • 3 years later...

Gday brewers.

Hope you love a newb who rehashes an old thread!

 

Reading the previous comments I think I have the notion but wanted to check against this recipe I am drooling over:

 

"5g Amarillo 5g Nelson 5g casacde @ 10 mins

5g Amarillo 5g Nelson 5g casacde @ 5 mins

strained this."

 

This seems pretty straight - boil 5g of each for 5 mins then add another 5g of each and continue to boil for another 5 mins. Then strain and add to wort.

Am I close?

 

"Seperately did 15g Amarillo 15g Nelson 15g Cascade @ 1 min steep for 30 mins. No straining - added all to wort."

 

This one has me beat but I'll give it a crack - boil these for a minute then kill the flame and let it continue "soaking" (is this the steeping?) for a further 30 mins.

 

How'd I do?

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How'd I do?

Welcome to the forum essfer, you did pretty well.

 

It looks like they used two separate pots, one for the boil and one for the steep.

 

Your process for the boil looks fine. The only thing I would add is to boil the hops in wort with a gravity around 1040. Adding 100g dry malt per litre of water will achieve close to this.

 

The steeping is fine and (when done separately to the boil) just uses water. I would strain it before adding it to the fermenter though.

 

Another option is to add the steeping hops at the end of the boil of the other hops and let it sit there for a bit. Much easier and you only use one pot. The liquid will stay hot for a while but if it is a small boil then it won't take long to drop below isomerisation tempertaures. If you are concerned about the additional bitterness from the boiled hops by letting it sit there after the boil then you can either adjust the times or do the steep separately as you mentioned.

 

Personally I would just do it at the end of the boil and leave the hop additions as is.

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The only thing I would add is to boil the hops in wort with a gravity around 1040. Adding 100g dry malt per litre of water will achieve close to this

 

Suggesting better infusion of flavour if the hops are boiled in the wort rather than in water and mixed into the 23L?

 

If so, would the quantities and boil times be different for direct infusion vs water infusion (now I'm just making up phrases). Only asking because the depth of flavour for any particular component in a brew will affect the end result, so if boiling in wort will affect the intensity or depth or whatever isn't that changing the recipe wholesale?

 

Not doubting your knowledge (mate I haven't even put down my first simple brew yet - what do I know) but trying to get my head around boiling in wort rather than water and how it changes things.

 

* I haven't even done a basic brew yet and already I am loving the complexity and detail that goes into everyone's beer. This could become a little bit of an obsession! So thanks for the tips!!

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The only thing I would add is to boil the hops in wort with a gravity around 1040. Adding 100g dry malt per litre of water will achieve close to this

 

Suggesting better infusion of flavour if the hops are boiled in the wort rather than in water and mixed into the 23L?

 

If so' date=' would the quantities and boil times be different for direct infusion vs water infusion (now I'm just making up phrases). Only asking because the depth of flavour for any particular component in a brew will affect the end result, so if boiling in wort will affect the intensity or depth or whatever isn't that changing the recipe wholesale?

 

Not doubting your knowledge (mate I haven't even put down my first simple brew yet - what do I know) but trying to get my head around boiling in wort rather than water and how it changes things.

 

* I haven't even done a basic brew yet and already I am loving the complexity and detail that goes into everyone's beer. This could become a little bit of an obsession! So thanks for the tips!![/quote']

 

Hey Essfer

 

Most often when a recipe quotes a boil the brewer has conducted the boil in a 1.040 wort, therefore it is a given. Hops are a complex ingredient and it may be more appropriate for BeerLust to post a detailed instruction here than for me to attempt something similar. However in simple terms the gravity of the wort reduces the harshness of the bittering component in the hop. I personally don't think this is an issue for < 5min additions but should be a consideration for your 10 minutes addition.

 

Cheers

Scottie

 

PS Welcome to the forum and good luck with the first up brew.

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Our Hairy friend is exactly correct. By far, the biggest effect on hop utilisation (in bittering terms) is the pH of the solution in which they are boiled. But all the papers I've read on the effects of time concentrate on the alpha acids where the hops are boiled for 30 minutes up to 120 minutes.

 

The concentration of sugars in the wort really only make a small difference (between an SG of 1.050 and water @ 1.00) of about 15%.

 

The difference between a pH of 5.8 and 5.1 is a nearly 40% change in bittering (a higher pH gives a higher amount of alpha acid isomeration),

 

I haven't read any published papers on beta acids though, which is what I think you were specifically asking. I'll have to remedy that at some stage.

 

Cheers

Phil

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