bottle hopping? is there a way to test new hops without committing to

[woodwormm]

so i'm contemplating how do i research new varieties (to me) without wasting/committing to entire batches.

could i brew a really low ibu smash with something neutral (like POR) and then bottle hop various varieties to get a feel for them?

essentially like keg hopping but on a smaller scale...

 

[bum]

Sounds like a bad idea to me. Bolt a small amount of aroma and some floaties on top of a beer you wouldn't want to drink under any other circumstances.

Dry hop in the fermenter. It works. Crazy, I know.

 

[tavas]

Make smaller batches

 

[scon]

I've heard of people buying a sixpack of something light and inoffensive and dumping a couple pellets of hops into them for a few days to compare the differences.

Here's a reference to it.

 

[barls]

great way to create gushers.

 

[PeteQ]

Why not try french pressing?

Chuck some hops in a coffee plunger, pour a beer in, after half an hour (or however long you like) plunge then pour the strained beer into a glass. Not exactly the same but you will certainly get some flavour and aroma to come across...

Cheers

 

[Pokey]

Make a hop tea and add a bit to a glass of beer?

 

[angus_grant]

I posted a very similar topic as Scon's suggestion about a month ago. Generally crapped on by most people that replied. Corona, Hahn Super dry, Budweiser, any pale fairly tasteless light beer.

Dry-hopping mega-swill stubbies for testing hops

I think it will give you a basic indication as to how late dry-hopping or keg hopping hops (or combination of hops) will taste.

 

[HBHB]

+ 1 on Pete's idea of French Pressing. Make a 25 Litre Batch, with a fairly neutral hop for bittering @ 60 minutes. Post primary fermentation, rack and split it into 5L demijohns and do a 250ml French press with 5 different hops. Only needs a 5 minute steep in boiling water with 15g of hops to give a solid flavour hit from each variety. Transfer to bottles next day or you can also do a 3-4 day dry hop with another 5-10 g at fermentation temp.

Martin

 

[Dave70]

so i'm contemplating how do i research new varieties (to me) without wasting/committing to entire batches.

could i brew a really low ibu smash with something neutral (like POR) and then bottle hop various varieties to get a feel for them?

essentially like keg hopping but on a smaller scale...

Yeah, that's a shit of an idea. I once contemplated it myself. Then acted upon it. it was indeed shit. Plenty of nucleation points on a hop pellet, apparently.

The best method I found was perhaps doing say a 15L batch of an pale / wheat / hop. Then I stopped worrying about stuff like that and decided to find a good hop's chart on the interweb and printed it out for quick reference.
One thing I found useful was to stop focusing so much on the AA content and start educating myself more about cohumulone levels ect and how this effects flavor profiles and stuff like aroma longevity
Don't sweat it. They all behave pretty much as described on the box if used reasonably.

A POR / Sorachi ace IIPA would, I suppose, constitute 'unreasonable'. But you never know.

 

[lael]

Dave,

What are the cohumulone levels etc? What impact do they have and where do I learn more?

Thx!

 

[Dave70]

Dave,

What are the cohumulone levels etc? What impact do they have and where do I learn more?

Thx!

Firstly, you need to get this. Plenty of graphs, comparisons and explanations about hops on how hops get the job done.
I'm certainly no expert,at all, but basically the relation between co-humulone levels and total alpha acid's (plus many more factors) is the reason, all other things being equal, you can drink two beers hopped to identical IBU's and find one delicious and the other abrasive. Pretty shitty explanation, but thats kind of the idea.

Like I said, by the book.

 

[fletcher]

make a 2,3,5 whatever litre batch. boil up some DME and your hop/s of choice for however many minutes. ferment out in a juice bottle or what not, crash chill in fridge, decant off into another bottle for 2 weeks and prime. sexy.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Firstly, you need to get this. Plenty of graphs, comparisons and explanations about hops on how hops get the job done.
I'm certainly no expert,at all, but basically the relation between co-humulone levels and total alpha acid's (plus many more factors) is the reason, all other things being equal, you can drink two beers hopped to identical IBU's and find one delicious and the other abrasive. Pretty shitty explanation, but thats kind of the idea.

Like I said, by the book.

Yes

Buy that book.

In fact every brewer should have a copy.

 

[GuyQLD]

Maybe I should get the wife to order it for my birthday... The birthday that was three weeks ago...

 

[lael]

cheers! Thanks!

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Maybe I should get the wife to order it for my birthday... The birthday that was three weeks ago...

You should

 

[treefiddy]

I had a go at this the other day. I filled a stubby from a keg and added a gram of Ella.
It gave a strong but pleasant floral aroma. I would use less next time.

 

[Byran]

Why not make a full batch with just a bittering addition and no chill it. Then just get 5 or more 15l fresh wort containers and do separate ferments all with US05 or something easy and do a mini boil/hop tea of aroma/flavour additions with each using different hops. Then dry hop each mini batch so you get to taste each one as they develop flavours.
A lot of work but you could make 5 or so different beers at a time. A couple of long necks of each.

 

[angus_grant]

Why not pop a cap on a bottle and put a hop tea in it to test as a first step?

If it tastes rubbish then I haven't wasted the effort of doing a full mash, getting 5 containers, cleaning, sanitising, finding ferment space (or method to control ferment temps on 5 containers) for all 5 containers, dividing yeast properly to make sure I don't under or over-pitch, doing hop tea/boil on an unknown mix and quantity of hops, etc, etc, etc

If it tastes OK, then I can go through the whole process and see if my first impressions were right and the mix of hops is a good combination.

I can pop the bottle on a bland beer, pour in hop tea I am wanting to test, leave for a bit, and then taste beer. Oh, that tastes awful, lucky I didn't spend an entire brew day (time and ingredients) finding that out.

Yes, this is not the best approach to testing out hop combinations
Yes it probably only applies to aroma, ferment, or keg hopping.

I see it as the first dead easy step in evaluating hop combinations.
Hop tea, pop a cap, pour in and taste.
I then have an opinion on a hop combination and see whether I want to do further investigation.