Hop tea at kegging time?

[Aussiekraut]

I want to experiment with a few low-alcohol brews and want to give the evaporation method a try. The problem with this is of course that it also boils off all hop aromas and flavours, just leaving the bitterness behind. To counter this, I'm thinking about adding a hop tea to the keg, to get some flavours back. I don't want to keg hop as it would mean the hops would stay in the beer for a lot longer than I am happy for them to.

Has anybody done this? What was the outcome? Good? Bad? Pointless?

I've brewed mid-strength beers before by simply using less grains and mashing at higher temperatures to get more body into the beer and they weren't bad but still a little thin, owing to the dramatically reduced grain bill. So currently I am thinking about brewing a standard batch but mashing at 72C to increase dextrin sugars and lower the base ABV. My provisional recipe sits at 4% and I'd like to halve that. What I want is a full-bodied, low-alcohol beer, eventually pushing it toward near zero. 

[Back Brewing]

55 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

I want to experiment with a few low-alcohol brews and want to give the evaporation method a try. The problem with this is of course that it also boils off all hop aromas and flavours, just leaving the bitterness behind. To counter this, I'm thinking about adding a hop tea to the keg, to get some flavours back. I don't want to keg hop as it would mean the hops would stay in the beer for a lot longer than I am happy for them to.

Has anybody done this? What was the outcome? Good? Bad? Pointless?

I've brewed mid-strength beers before by simply using less grains and mashing at higher temperatures to get more body into the beer and they weren't bad but still a little thin, owing to the dramatically reduced grain bill. So currently I am thinking about brewing a standard batch but mashing at 72C to increase dextrin sugars and lower the base ABV. My provisional recipe sits at 4% and I'd like to halve that. What I want is a full-bodied, low-alcohol beer, eventually pushing it toward near zero. 

There you go AK he reckons it was great

[Aussiekraut]

39 minutes ago, Back Brewing said:

There you go AK he reckons it was great

Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear  

 

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

4 hours ago, Aussiekraut said:

Thank you. That's what I wanted to hear  

 

I personally found that it didn't seem to blend in as well compared to doing it when ferment was slowing say day 4 or 5.

I was even putting it in keg first and letting keg fill from bottom and mix it in.  Just my experience though yours could be different.

[Aussiekraut]

21 minutes ago, Uhtred Of Beddanburg said:

I personally found that it didn't seem to blend in as well compared to doing it when ferment was slowing say day 4 or 5.

I was even putting it in keg first and letting keg fill from bottom and mix it in.  Just my experience though yours could be different.

Thanks for sharing. I guess it is a compromise. Somehow I need to get some hop flavour back into the beer, after I boiled it off beforehand.

[Uhtred Of Beddanburg]

12 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

Thanks for sharing. I guess it is a compromise. Somehow I need to get some hop flavour back into the beer, after I boiled it off beforehand.

It will still benefit the beer you already have kegged. I just know my side by side I preferred the one 4 days in.

[Back Brewing]

24 minutes ago, Aussiekraut said:

Thanks for sharing. I guess it is a compromise. Somehow I need to get some hop flavour back into the beer, after I boiled it off beforehand.

Let us know how you go with it

[Triple B Brewing]

3 hours ago, Back Brewing said:

Let us know how you go with it

Yep I’m very interested in your findings as well @Aussiekraut