# Hop Tea Vs Dry Hop



## MarkBastard (6/3/10)

Gday all.

It seems like there's two main post-boil methods of getting aroma hop additions in your beer. The first being dry hopping, chucking hops into your fermenter or keg, or making a hop tea and adding that to your fermenter or keg.

People with experience doing both, what are the negatives and positives of both?


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## bullsneck (6/3/10)

When I've dry hopped using more than 15g, I've found that I can get grassy flavours.


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## MarkBastard (6/3/10)

bullsneck said:


> When I've dry hopped using more than 15g, I've found that I can get grassy flavours.



Interesting, I've also heard that boiling hops in water (as opposed to wort) can give grassy flavours.


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## Batz (6/3/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> Gday all.
> 
> It seems like there's two main post-boil methods of getting aroma hop additions in your beer. The first being dry hopping, chucking hops into your fermenter or keg, or making a hop tea and adding that to your fermenter or keg.
> 
> People with experience doing both, what are the negatives and positives of both?




I read these replies and try to resist adding my two bobs worth, only because it usually turns out badly.

OK I don't believe you will ever come close to the same flavours making hop tea as you would dry hopping. Hop tea with boiling water will give you a completely different finished beer profile to dry hopping, it will lose flavour and be more bitter.
I was quite an opponent to dry hopping until recently, I gave dry hopping in the keg a whirl and never looked back, "do try it"

Batz


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## Batz (6/3/10)

bullsneck said:


> When I've dry hopped using more than 15g, I've found that I can get grassy flavours.




Try it in the keg bulls instead of in secondary, in secondary I found it grassy as well.

Batz


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## MarkBastard (6/3/10)

Cheers Batz.

I welcome any and all feedback, as you may have noticed sometimes certain ideas here are posted and if there's never any opposition or alternative opinions people may think of it as being the perfect solution. The point of this thread is to try and work out the differences.

Now as I understand it with hop teas the point is to control exactly how long you have boiled for, and then add the boiled tea directly to a much larger volume of much colder liquid, affectively instantly chilling the tea. In theory this sounds to me like it should work, which is why I'm asking for varied input from people that have tried it.

I do like what dry hopping does and I have dry hopped a keg before. If I could get the same resiny mouth feel and excellent aroma from a tea, well I think a tea would be an easier method. But if the tea doesn't work the same, then there's no point looking at how the method itself is more preferable.


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## MarkBastard (6/3/10)

Batz said:


> Try it in the keg bulls instead of in secondary, in secondary I found it grassy as well.



By the way that is excellent feedback, as I have never dry hopped in primary / secondary and I assumed it would have been less likely to give grassy characteristics than in the keg.


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## jyo (6/3/10)

Batz said:


> Try it in the keg bulls instead of in secondary, in secondary I found it grassy as well.
> 
> Batz



A little :icon_offtopic: Hey Batz, do mean just chuck 'em in the keg loose, or use a 'tea ball'.
The lovely missus picked one up for me last week, and I'm yet to christen it.
I have never tried the hop tea, but my 2c is that I've really only experienced the grassy flavours when dry hopping European hops (Saaz, Hersbrucker, Tett etc), and 'grassiness' is part of the flavour profile of some of these anyway...Never had grassiness with Yankee hops...
This Wehein Hefe Dunkel is going down nicely...Cheers, john.


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## Jamieman (6/3/10)

I started steeping hops in a 1L coffee plunger a couple of months ago.
The only one i have tried was, after 4 weeks in the bottle still to bitter.
Blue Mtns larger
Wheat Malt, Malto,Dex mix 1kg
20g Hallertau @ 10min
10g Hallertau @ 2 min

Will try in another 2 wks for a total of 10 wks.

I have tried a couple of steeps since using kits.
It would appear from my minuscule experience compares to T/Bagging, much more bitterness is realized by steeping.
A good thing perhaps as less hops is required.


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## bullsneck (6/3/10)

Batz said:


> I read these replies and try to resist adding my two bobs worth, only because it usually turns out badly.
> 
> OK I don't believe you will ever come close to the same flavours making hop tea as you would dry hopping. Hop tea with boiling water will give you a completely different finished beer profile to dry hopping, it will lose flavour and be more bitter.
> I was quite an opponent to dry hopping until recently, I gave dry hopping in the keg a whirl and never looked back, "do try it"
> ...



Thanks, Batz!

Will do. Got a DSGA with Galaxy rather than Amarillo on the go at the moment.

Very timely advice!


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## Batz (6/3/10)

jyo said:


> A little :icon_offtopic: Hey Batz, do mean just chuck 'em in the keg loose, or use a 'tea ball'.
> The lovely missus picked one up for me last week, and I'm yet to christen it.
> I have never tried the hop tea, but my 2c is that I've really only experienced the grassy flavours when dry hopping European hops (Saaz, Hersbrucker, Tett etc), and 'grassiness' is part of the flavour profile of some of these anyway...Never had grassiness with Yankee hops...
> This Wehein Hefe Dunkel is going down nicely...Cheers, john.




Yes I used a tea ball and also a piece of some sort of stuff used to filter honey.
Batz


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## Screwtop (6/3/10)

I use a 20cm square of swiss voile (yep the BIAB stuff). Boil the voile in some water for a few min then add 1g/L of hops/ sometimes 2g/L to the square, tie it up with a plastic coated twistie tie and drop it in the keg. As soon as the hop aroma reaches the desired level (4 to 10 days) I fish it out with a piece of wire with a hook on the end.

Screwy


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## Swinging Beef (6/3/10)

I feel hop tea makes for a more subtle and english character hop aroma and dry hopping a more up front american style hop aroma.


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## Brewman_ (6/3/10)

Screwtop said:


> I use a 20cm square of swiss voile (yep the BIAB stuff). Boil the voile in some water for a few min then add 1g/L of hops/ sometimes 2g/L to the square, tie it up with a plastic coated twistie tie and drop it in the keg. As soon as the hop aroma reaches the desired level (4 to 10 days) I fish it out with a piece of wire with a hook on the end.
> 
> Screwy



Hi Screwy,
Is this not the same as leaving brew in secondary for 4 to 10 days with hops then kegging? Is it that you have the keg chilled?

I get the difference if you choose to add hops to your keg and leave it.

Just trying to understand.
Fear_n_Loath


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## Tony (6/3/10)

I have never seen any experienced brewer recomend hopping in water.

I remember when i was learning i was warned against it. Water has a high pH compared to wort, and temperature increases pH. 

Hight pH generally extracts unwanteds in the brewing process. If boiling or steeping hops in water was better..... the big boys would do it... but they dont.

I tried it anyway and was terrible. Harsh and nasty.

I find dry hopping grassy and generally dont do it either but i have put some EKG in a a nylon bag and put in a keg of bitter...... quite liked it.

I think dry hopping in secondary should be kept to a minimum and avoid mixing hops with strait water.

cheers


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## Screwtop (6/3/10)

fear_n_loath said:


> Hi Screwy,
> Is this not the same as leaving brew in secondary for 4 to 10 days with hops then kegging? Is it that you have the keg chilled?
> 
> I get the difference if you choose to add hops to your keg and leave it.
> ...




Fcuk Nose ! It works best for me. Tried dry hopping primary and secondary.

Screwy


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## MarkBastard (6/3/10)

I have heaps and heaps of spare swiss voile so I think I may just have to make up some hop bags for dry hopping in the keg.

The old fishing line trick courtesy of Ross sounds like a good idea. Use the fishing line to tie up the hop bag and then also have the line going out the keg through the side of the lid (it'll still seal apparently), that way you can pull it out when you want.


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## Brewman_ (6/3/10)

Screwtop said:


> Fcuk Nose ! It works best for me. Tried dry hopping primary and secondary.
> 
> Screwy



Yeh sometimes it just works so you do it, I have a few things like that.

Fear_n_Loath


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## Batz (6/3/10)

Screwtop said:


> I use a 20cm square of swiss voile (yep the BIAB stuff). Boil the voile in some water for a few min then add 1g/L of hops/ sometimes 2g/L to the square, tie it up with a plastic coated twistie tie and drop it in the keg. As soon as the hop aroma reaches the desired level (4 to 10 days) I fish it out with a piece of wire with a hook on the end.
> 
> Screwy




I do similar but I don't hook it out, after 5 or so days I find it's what it will be for the remainder of the keg. I just leave it there.

Batz


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## Sammus (6/3/10)

I've done massive dry hops in secondary before, and while it is grassy if you insist on guzzling the beer in the right after packaging it, the grassy flavour seems to disappear and just leave the hoppy goodness behind after a couple of weeks.


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## Pumpy (7/3/10)

Mark^Bastard said:


> Gday all.
> 
> It seems like there's two main post-boil methods of getting aroma hop additions in your beer. The first being dry hopping, chucking hops into your fermenter or keg, or making a hop tea and adding that to your fermenter or keg.
> 
> People with experience doing both, what are the negatives and positives of both?




I use the pool skimmer box stockings one or two a boiled SS washer 

add up to 14 - 28 grams hops per keg 

tie with dental floss and suspend in keg 

18 C for five days for best flavour 
5 C for 10 days 
remove hops from keg 

I find effect lasts r five days then you have to repeat 

You will only get Grassy flavours if you dont remove hops after five days 

Pumpy


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## Thirsty Boy (7/3/10)

As Batz said - this is two different processes. Dry Hop character and Kettle Hop character are two different things. You cant get a good "dry hop" character by trying to use a hop tea... and you cant get a good "late hop" character by dry hopping.

Dry hopping allows you to get the flavour and aroma of the very volatile hydrocarbon components of the hop oils - these are almost instantly blown off if you boil your hops even for a very short time, like in a hop tea.

The components that you get from late hopping and (mostly) from hop teas are the oxidised terpene fraction of the hop oils including alcohols, heavy esters, keytones and other stuff - these are considerably less volatile and also often even more aromatic than the hydrocarbons. They can survive a bit of boiling & give you the perfumy aromas you get from late hopping.

The compromise is the hopback.. which is the only form of hopping with hot wort that gets you any real hydrocarbon content because its happening in a sealed environment and things are cooled so quickly that some of the hydrocarbon fraction is retained, LOTS of the oxygenated fraction is retained and so you get intensely floral perfume oriented aromas like as you get in a Little Creatures. ... but even then, hopback beers are _different_ to dry hop or late hopped beers. The heat changes things.

I frequently use hop teas when I want a more intense late hop character - subtle late hop aroma I can get from hops into my no-chill cube.. but that also gives you lots of flavour - so if I'm mainly looking for aroma, its hop tea time. I generally boil for very short periods or not at all. Simply stirring the hops into the hot water (Yes Tony, hot water, which works perfectly well in fact - although perhaps if I was boiling for longer it wouldn't) and the more intense a "hopback" character I want, the less time I leave between the hops hitting the heat and the wort being poured into the fermenter to cool down. If I am trying to emulate a creatures style aroma.. then I only leave it for 20-30 seconds or so, just stirred in really, plunge the coffee plunger and into the fermenter it goes - that gives me the really volatile stuff, then I'll add more water and give it a few more minutes to extract a little more of the less delicate aromas and not be tossing then in the bin.

The other thing that a hop tea gives you - is the ability to not have a lot of your late hop aroma blown out the airlock during the vigorous initial fermentation. I put my teas into the fermenter 1/2 the 2/3rds of the way through when things have slowed down a little - BUT - have found that if you don't give the tea _some_ contact with actively fermenting wort - you do end up with grassy and harsh flavours, even if you make the tea with wort rather than water. Teas put into the fermenter right at the end, or into the keg have been in my experience initially quite nasty - they do settle down over time and end up good, but the working yeast and a bit of C02 evolution does in a few days what it takes weeks in the keg to achieve.

I don't much care for straight dry hop character and do it infrequently and/or lightly - I like the hopback character, but being a no-chiller had to muck about quite a bit to come close to it... ergo all the hop tea experimenting.... I call it Ultra Late Hopping and its a little bit of mucking about, but works very well and is a great addition if you happen to be a no-chiller like me

Thats how it works for me anyway

TB

edit spelling and the especially poor grammar bits


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## Bribie G (7/3/10)

TB - that's basically what I do, as a no chiller. For example with a couple of American Ambers I have at the moment, on pitching the yeast I also added 20g of Centennial to one and 20g of Amarillo to the other, as hop tea. Today they go into cubes for a cold crash and a further 20g of each hop - as hop tea - will go into each cube. 

Using a coffee plunger, can anyone see any problems with keeping the pressed hop 'cake' and using it as part of the bittering addition for the next brew? 

Edit: I realise that the hop tea right at the end can produce a flavour/aroma that stomps all over some of the other features of the beer but as it's American Ambers this is what I'm looking for as they late hop their beers to buggery, as far as I know. I wouldn't attempt it with a UK beer - I once did it with quite a small amount of Cascade in a UK Special Bitter because I heard that's what Fullers and Brains do with some of their beers nowadays. All you could taste was the Cascade so I wouldn't do that ultra ultra ultra late hop again in that case.


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## MarkBastard (7/3/10)

Thanks TB, very well explained.


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## RdeVjun (7/3/10)

BribieG said:


> Using a coffee plunger, can anyone see any problems with keeping the pressed hop 'cake' and using it as part of the bittering addition for the next brew?


Great minds etc! I have a heap of wet Styrian in a plastic bottle in my freezer to try this with! Only thing is, I didn't keep terribly good records of what went into it, so it is probably worthwhile starting the collection again, or just accept random bittering...  

I haven't used the plunger for a while though, partly out of laziness but also trying to reduce the number of individual operations* and also ambivalence about whether it was giving the desired results, so recently I have just been adding more late kettle hops. That seems to give satisfactory flavour and aroma in my ESBs, but I could probably fiddle around with aroma again with a some tea going in towards the end of fermentation.

Also, I agree with Thirsty about not adding the teas too late, it can get grassy and rather obnoxious if added after fermentation has ceased.

* With 4 batches on the go at once and at varying stages of completion, from brewing the stuff, fart- arsing around with yeasts, tea hopping, gelatining, racking and so on, there was something needing doing every day and it started to made it difficult to go away/ have a life etc, so I looked to trim back the number of operations.


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## Bribie G (7/3/10)

A major criticism of No-Chill in a cube is the possible muted hop flavour and aroma character of the finished beer. Now I may be wandering into totally politically incorrect territory here but with my next ale brew, I might use a good dual purpose hop such as Northdown or Challenger and do the following. 


Using say 50g of the hop, make hop tea with a very short boil and fridge it in a sanitised jar (Schottie)
Use the pressings for bittering in the kettle
Add the tea to the beer on pitching the yeast into the cooled wort

A bit like those operations where they remove some of your tissue/cells, do the nuke procedure then inject the healthy stuff back into your body. Might work.


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## fraser_john (7/3/10)

Pumpy said:


> You will only get Grassy flavours if you dont remove hops after five days



How long would you think the real-ales in England are kept around? They often dry hop as it leaves the brewery. You have me concerned as I have a bag of hops in one of my kegs I am naturally carbonating as an experiment and its going to be more than 5 days!


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## Bribie G (7/3/10)

I have teaballed a plug of Styrians in a keg and kept it for two weeks before chilling, then another week cold before serving. Took it to the QLD case swap, no complaints  However I'd be a bit cautious with traditional Fuggles or with some of the Germans such as trad. Hallertauer.


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## Thirsty Boy (7/3/10)

BribieG said:


> A major criticism of No-Chill in a cube is the possible muted hop flavour and aroma character of the finished beer. Now I may be wandering into totally politically incorrect territory here but with my next ale brew, I might use a good dual purpose hop such as Northdown or Challenger and do the following.
> 
> 
> Using say 50g of the hop, make hop tea with a very short boil and fridge it in a sanitised jar (Schottie)
> ...



It might work, but I wouldn't hold out any great hopes.

The alpha acids, which is what isomerise to give you your iso-alpha acids and thus bitterness - are insoluable in cold water/beer.. but are soluble in hot wort, so my take on what would happen is that you make your tea, many if not most of the hop acids dissolve out of the hops into the wort and start to isomerise - they of course stop isomerising when you pour the tea into the fermenter, and the insoluble un-isomerised alpha acids fall to the bottom of the fermenter.

Leaving a wet cake of hops that for sure will have some.. but certainly far from their full compliment of alpha acids and aroma compounds. This would be less true with hop flowers where it takes an amount of time in the movement of the boil to physically access the hop resins within the cone... so there might be something in it with flowers.

Perhaps worth a try for shits and giggles, but I wouldn't expect much... it would be kinda cool if it did work though.


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## Pumpy (7/3/10)

fraser_john said:


> How long would you think the real-ales in England are kept around? They often dry hop as it leaves the brewery. You have me concerned as I have a bag of hops in one of my kegs I am naturally carbonating as an experiment and its going to be more than 5 days!



FJ It is only my opinion ,maybe as I use pellets and not plugs to dry hop , those plugs take a bit of time to absorb and break open completley 
plus if you are dry hopping at 18 C or 5 C would make a difference


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## MarkBastard (7/3/10)

Anyone who does double batches but ferments in two 30L fermenters, willing to do an experiment and provide feedback? Would be awesome if someone could do a side by side.


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## TidalPete (7/3/10)

Screwtop said:


> I use a 20cm square of swiss voile (yep the BIAB stuff). Boil the voile in some water for a few min then add 1g/L of hops/ sometimes 2g/L to the square, tie it up with a plastic coated twistie tie and drop it in the keg. As soon as the hop aroma reaches the desired level (4 to 10 days) I fish it out with a piece of wire with a hook on the end.
> 
> Screwy



Got Swiss voile bags designed for this very purpose but have only dry hopped to keg a couple of times. I don't "no chill" & find adding my aroma hops after the boil is turned off then steeping for 20 minutes before chilling works ok.
To dry hop in the keg toss a big (sanitised) ball bearing in with the hops & fish them out with this -----




T


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## Bribie G (7/3/10)

TidalPete said:


> Got Swiss voile bags designed for this very purpose but have only dry hopped to keg a couple of times. I don't "no chill" & find adding my aroma hops after the boil is turned off then steeping for 20 minutes before chilling works ok.
> To dry hop in the keg toss a big (sanitised) ball bearing in with the hops & fish them out with this -----
> View attachment 36222
> 
> ...



You've lost me there Pete, is that a sex aid?


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## TidalPete (7/3/10)

BribieG said:


> You've lost me there Pete, is that a sex aid?




:lol: Sadly not mate.

Tip the keg slightly to one side & the ball bearing rolls the hop bag to the side of the keg where these very powerful magnets (Some use them for a stir bar) guided by your sober (?) hands raise the hop bag to the top of the keg for painless extraction.
Best $5 or $6 I ever spent. These little buggers have lots of uses around the brewery. :super: 

T


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## fraser_john (15/3/10)

Pumpy said:


> FJ It is only my opinion ,maybe as I use pellets and not plugs to dry hop , those plugs take a bit of time to absorb and break open completley
> plus if you are dry hopping at 18 C or 5 C would make a difference



Off topic, but info about dry hopping non the less, I had 30gms of each cascade and chinook in an APA whilst it was naturally carbonating, home grown flowers.

After over two weeks I have put it on tap and thankfully no grassy flavours! Yippee.

Might be right Pumpy, could be the pellets, much greater surface area for leeching that out.


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## The_Duck (28/9/10)

Hi All,

Just want to make sure I have my head around the thoughts in this thread:

1. If you make a hop tea, it will give you aroma unless you boil the hops for a while and then you run the risk of off flavours (grassiness, harsh bitterness etc).

2. Doing a very short steep in hot water (< 1 minute) in a coffee plunger then adding to the fermenter about 1/3 to 2/3 of the way through the ferment should give a good result

3. Adding hops to a hop ball and dropping in the keg COULD be hit and miss for delivering flavour and aroma. If it works it will probably be for about 1 week so drink up quick ?

4. Depending on the hop variety, hop rates should be approx 1-2g/L of beer you are modifying ? Is there any more science around working out the right rate ?

5. Adding stuff to the fermenter or keg that has not been boiled is OK ? Is this not risking infection in the brew ?


I am testing something with a current brew (ANZAC Pilsner - Aussie Malt with Kiwi Hops  ) where I did a late addition (flameout) of hops right before I dumped it all into a 17L cube. I has a litre or 2 of riwaka and malt in the bottom of the kettle which I put in a small airtight plastic bucket (malt extract bucket from LHBS) and sealed up.

When I pitched the brew into the fermenter, I also dumped the hoppy mix in as well. Not sure how that will all turn out but I am expecting the aroma will still be there but little or no added bitterness.



Duck


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## Nick JD (28/9/10)

Putting a small hop pellet into your left nostril while sipping your beer gives by far the best hop aroma of any other method.


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## The_Duck (28/9/10)

Nick JD said:


> Putting a small hop pellet into your left nostril while sipping your beer gives by far the best hop aroma of any other method.



Yes... yes it would.

Can't say it is the most practical method and certainly would get some strange looks from my friends when I give them a piece of green vegetable matter and tell them to shove it up.... somewhere.

Could end in tears.

Thanks for thinking outside the box though.


Duck


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## Bribie G (28/9/10)

Nick, you've started early today - must be Oktoberfest :icon_cheers: 

Duck, one thing about hop tea, if you use boiling water and make it just like a pot of normal tea, preferably in a french press, it can add a fair amount of bitterness. I know the Gods of Brewing Information have all these graphs and charts that tell you that alpha acids need to be boiled for hours etc to impart bitterness. I'd challenge them to drink half a cup, nay quarter of a cup, nay even a tablespoonful of my hop tea that I get out of the french press without looking like this




Dry hopping with pellets straight into the fermenter or a teaball into the keg, on the other hand, will impart more aroma and a bit of flavour (never could work out what hop flavour is supposed to be as flavour and aroma are intertwined. I was always under the impression that there is only sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami)


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## The_Duck (28/9/10)

BribieG said:


> Nick, you've started early today - must be Oktoberfest :icon_cheers:
> 
> Duck, one thing about hop tea, if you use boiling water and make it just like a pot of normal tea, preferably in a french press, it can add a fair amount of bitterness. I know the Gods of Brewing Information have all these graphs and charts that tell you that alpha acids need to be boiled for hours etc to impart bitterness. I'd challenge them to drink half a cup, nay quarter of a cup, nay even a tablespoonful of my hop tea that I get out of the french press without looking like this
> 
> ...



Hi Bribie,

French Press = Coffee Plunger ?

I generally don't need bitterness, I would just like to "bump" the aroma up a few notches in some brews. Hopefully as my limited skills progress there will be less need to do adjustments.

I will play around with teas for a bit and see how I go. As with most stuff I found in brewing, it is a moving target due to seasonal changes in products, weather, process etc.

I have 2 teaball's ready to roll for the keg hopping if I go that route.


Thanks for the comments.


Duck


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## Nick JD (28/9/10)

The_Duck said:


> Hi Bribie,
> 
> French Press = Coffee Plunger ?
> 
> ...



Have you thought about trying those little jars of aroma extract? A jar will do five batches or two batches that'll melt your nosehairs.


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## Bribie G (28/9/10)

Nick's suggestion is good, I know that the Germans use a lot of hopsextract (as they state on their cans and bottles  ) in their cheaper beers such as Oettinger and they have a pleasant hoppy aroma.


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## pk.sax (28/9/10)

St Nickless is gonna make my eyes water... But awesome thread nonetheless  my least understood area so I'm glad ur all thrashing it out


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## The_Duck (28/9/10)

practicalfool said:


> St Nickless is gonna make my eyes water... But awesome thread nonetheless  my least understood area so I'm glad ur all thrashing it out




Saint ? WTF ?


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## The_Duck (28/9/10)

Nick JD said:


> Have you thought about trying those little jars of aroma extract? A jar will do five batches or two batches that'll melt your nosehairs.




Does the melting of the nosehairs imply that I stick the jar up my nose ?

Duck


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## Nick JD (28/9/10)

The_Duck said:


> Saint ? WTF ?



He's confusing canonization with my job as the clown who gets shot from the cannon.


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## Nick JD (28/9/10)

The_Duck said:


> Does the melting of the nosehairs imply that I stick the jar up my nose ?
> 
> Duck



You can stick it wherever you like, but I reckon you'd be best to add it at slightly less than recomended rates FTW.


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## Ross (28/9/10)

I personally don't like the "hop tea" method. It often extracts flavours (grassy) I don't want in my finished beer.

Simply add fresh hops direct to your wort once the fermentation is basically finished & leave in the beer for minimum 5 days.


cheers Ross


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## The_Duck (28/9/10)

Ross said:


> I personally don't like the "hop tea" method. It often extracts flavours (grassy) I don't want in my finished beer.
> 
> Simply add fresh hops direct to your wort once the fermentation is basically finished & leave in the beer for minimum 5 days.
> 
> ...




Thanks for the tip Ross.

How does that go with risk of infection ? Are the hops somehow sterilised before being packaged ?

Does the risk of infection drop after primary fermentation because of the changes in the wort ?

Just a bit curious.


Duck


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## pk.sax (28/9/10)

Ross, what about cold extraction, the kind they do with coffee sometimes. i.e. Put hops in cold water, put in refrigerator and leave for 2 days or so, then press the extract out. With coffee it results in the extraction of the nicer smoother flavours slowly rather than the harsher espresso type flavours. Would this work with hops too?


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## np1962 (28/9/10)

The_Duck said:


> Thanks for the tip Ross.
> 
> How does that go with risk of infection ? Are the hops somehow sterilised before being packaged ?
> 
> ...


Hops are naturally anti-bacterial, you would need to treat them pretty badly to have them introduce anything bad to your beer.
Cheers
Nige


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## Ross (28/9/10)

practicalfool said:


> Ross, what about cold extraction, the kind they do with coffee sometimes. i.e. Put hops in cold water, put in refrigerator and leave for 2 days or so, then press the extract out. With coffee it results in the extraction of the nicer smoother flavours slowly rather than the harsher espresso type flavours. Would this work with hops too?




Never tried, but guess you could, though you'll probably get less extraction with the small water volume - Don't really see the point though, as putting them direct in the wort is effectively doing the same & you can leave there till you're ready to bottle or keg.

cheers Ross


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## pk.sax (28/9/10)

Good point, I was thinking of weizens... Don't want to do a secondary for them before bottling so if I want to add hops, its either in the boil or add very controlled amount after fermentation, just thinking out aloud why it was relevant in my head. Some of the hop flavours and aroma are bloody nice when separated from the extreme bitterness, gives some scope to experiment on the next one  I take ur point though, for a barley beer with a longish ferment, it wont make much difference I guess. My friend triple hopped his IPA by mistake (2 many cooks blah blah blah...). Apart from the strong hoppy taste, the aroma was great and some of the fruity flavours were nice too, just the bitterness was way over the top. I'll have to try it anyway to find out. Hehe


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## Ross (28/9/10)

practicalfool said:


> Good point, I was thinking of weizens... Don't want to do a secondary for them before bottling so if I want to add hops, its either in the boil or add very controlled amount after fermentation, just thinking out aloud why it was relevant in my head. Some of the hop flavours and aroma are bloody nice when separated from the extreme bitterness, gives some scope to experiment on the next one  I take ur point though, for a barley beer with a longish ferment, it wont make much difference I guess. My friend triple hopped his IPA by mistake (2 many cooks blah blah blah...). Apart from the strong hoppy taste, the aroma was great and some of the fruity flavours were nice too, just the bitterness was way over the top. I'll have to try it anyway to find out. Hehe



Not really sure what you are saying, as beer type has nothing to do with it?
I rarely secondary (fruit beers being exception), just throw in the hops & proceed as normal. If you are worried about hops getting into your bottles, put the hops in a loose hop bag before adding to fermenter.


cheers Ross


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## emdub (28/9/10)

> Ross: Simply add fresh hops direct to your wort once the fermentation is basically finished & leave in the beer for minimum 5 days.



I was told to do it this way and knew nothing else before coming here. Using a teabag packet, I just drop the dry tea bag in the wort after sprinkling the yeast. I have done it this way each time now. It seems to be ok and it tastes fine.
But... I just bottled a Beermakers Cold kit where I soaked a Cascade teabag in boiled water for a few minutes first. I call that experimenting. But I know FA.


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## beerDingo (28/9/10)

TidalPete said:


> :lol: Sadly not mate.
> 
> Tip the keg slightly to one side & the ball bearing rolls the hop bag to the side of the keg where these very powerful magnets (Some use them for a stir bar) guided by your sober (?) hands raise the hop bag to the top of the keg for painless extraction.
> Best $5 or $6 I ever spent. These little buggers have lots of uses around the brewery. :super:
> ...



They are also great to get the stir bar out of your starter without touching anything!


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## michaelcocks (28/9/10)

EmDub said:


> I was told to do it this way and knew nothing else before coming here. Using a teabag packet, I just drop the dry tea bag in the wort after sprinkling the yeast. I have done it this way each time now. It seems to be ok and it tastes fine.
> But... I just bottled a Beermakers Cold kit where I soaked a Cascade teabag in boiled water for a few minutes first. I call that experimenting. But I know FA.



If you add with the yeast you will drive most of te aromatics away when the co2 vents 
I believe common practice is to wait until the primary has subsided


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## Nick JD (28/9/10)

Nose insertion whilst sipping retains all the aromatics, just don't sniff hard because the pain, THE PAIN IS HORRENDOUS. 

You can't extract any bitterness via supository, either.


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## The_Duck (28/9/10)

Nick JD said:


> Nose insertion whilst sipping retains all the aromatics, just don't sniff hard because the pain, THE PAIN IS HORRENDOUS.
> 
> You can't extract any bitterness via supository, either.



Personal experience ?


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## Nicko_Cairns (18/8/14)

Okay I'm reviving a really old thread here, but has anyone done the comparison? I was thinking about doing a hop tea, then adding to an already chilled keg, so the water would only be boiling for a minute or two... I tried and enjoyed dry hopping but the aroma didn't last too long unfortunately, definitely an option six days or so prior to having guests around to drink a keg.. Imo.. I used Nelson and sis t get any grassiness, it was quite lovely.


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## Nicko_Cairns (24/8/14)

Nicko_Cairns said:


> Okay I'm reviving a really old thread here, but has anyone done the comparison? I was thinking about doing a hop tea, then adding to an already chilled keg, so the water would only be boiling for a minute or two... I tried and enjoyed dry hopping but the aroma didn't last too long unfortunately, definitely an option six days or so prior to having guests around to drink a keg.. Imo.. I used Nelson and sis t get any grassiness, it was quite lovely.


Here's my initial comparison, early days yet though, I need to do more comparisons then share the results. 

http://aussiehomebrewer.com/topic/13350-rosss-nelson-sauvin-summer-ale/?p=1214028


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