Extracting hop oil

[Couchbrew]

A mate of mine does the "other" type of hop oil extraction using gas somehow. Has anyone thought about doing it for all their hop remnants or stale hops?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Start Here

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1993.tb01172.x/pdf

 

[MHB]

Its being done commercially already, you can even buy the products locally.
I wouldn't be using stale hops stale flavours can be extracted just like the good ones we want.
Mark

 

[Couchbrew]

That's all good however the idea was to have a use for leftovers and whether it's worth the effort. Even for the guys that grow their own. Easier to store oil than hop flowers

 

[Jack of all biers]

A mate of mine does the "other" type of hop oil extraction using gas somehow. Has anyone thought about doing it for all their hop remnants or stale hops?

Probably not a great idea as that method uses highly flammable/explosive liquids to enable extraction of the oils from the plant material. Different oils/products being extracted with the 'other' hops and I doubt one could achieve the result required with products you want from hops. In saying that, I haven't researched how they do extract the hops oils, so I could be wrong. I bet it's not the way your mate does it though.

On an aside, your mate should be careful too, as apart from the obvious explosive dangers to the person doing such things, it is a whole different sort of trouble getting caught with such equipment, than if they were just caught with a bit of 'other' hops in their possession. It's manufacture, not basic possession then. Real possibility of Gaol time v a fine or slap on the wrist.

 

[Brewman_]

The commercial ones are worth a try.

The best way to use old hops is to put them in the bin. Then get some fresh stuff..

You can't polish age and oxidation off a hop.

The new generation of Resins are extracted with Carbon Dioxide

 

[Stouter]

You can't polish age and oxidation off a hop.

Bit like polishing a turd then.

 

[Dae Tripper]

They might be good for herbal tea. Hops are in many herbal sleeping tablets.

 

[klangers]

Hop oils can be easily extracted at home using butane and some basic understanding of safety. It's no more dangerous than cooking dinner. Butane is lighter fluid and obviously highly volatile and flammable. I take no responsibility for anyone's loss, injury or other damages as a result of this post.

Essentially, the plant matter is tightly packed into a small vessel. The "test tubes" that white labs yeast used to come in are perfect.

1. Drill tiny hole in test tube base
2. Drill hole in test tube cap big enough for butane can conical nozzle to fit and seal into
3. Fill test tube with hops
4. Get a ceramic/stainless steel bowl
5. Hold test tube over bowl and inject butane. It'll be liquid due to the backpressure of forcing it through the tiny hole
6. The butane will dissolve out the oils from the hops and the mixture will dribble out the bottom of the tube
7. Note that pressure needs to be maintained, so you'll have to keep injecting butane until you're satisfied with the level of extraction (takes practise)
8. You'll have a very cold bowl of liquid butane with hop oils dissolved in it
9. Place the bowl with butane outside until the butane all evaporates off
10. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO ACCELERATE EVAPORATION BY HEATING THE BOWL unless you want to burn your house down
11. After the butane has evaporated, you'll have almost pure hop oil

Commercial solvent extraction (hops, instant coffee etc etc) uses supercritical carbon dioxide. I wouldn't say supercritical CO2 is within the reach of a home brewer. It's arguably not safer than butane, yes it's not flammable but the pressures involved make it dangerous in its own right.

 

[Grott]

And I thought "bottle bombs" we're bad!

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Yes you can extract the oil, as mentioned above why bother when it is already available, it would be worth giving it a go as the humulus lupulus will degenerate before the oil. It is easily done using alcohol to extract the oil and heating the alcohol using a baby bottle warmer and an air pump until the alcohol has evaporated leaving you with the oil, easy to do but then how much do you use?

 

[ein stein]

commercially sold butane isn't exactly food grade and you will end up with some nasty crap in your extract.. if you don't burn your house down first. maybe try an ethanol extraction or steam distillation.

 

[MHB]

Methanol would be better, as Chlorophyll A isn't soluble in Methanol, but is in Ethanol.
Chlorophyll A is the most abundant in plant matter and not something that you really want to extract anyway.
Mark

 

[captain crumpet]

Methanol would be better, as Chlorophyll A isn't soluble in Methanol, but is in Ethanol.
Chlorophyll A is the most abundant in plant matter and not something that you really want to extract anyway.
Mark

What happens to the hop oils when any of the solvents completely evaporate? Are they damaged by complete exposure to oxygen? I see it as trying to find a balance between less chlorophyll or less oxygen exposure. If extracted in ethanol you could dry it to a point but leave enough for the oils to still be suspended. Or i know acetone has a quick evaporation rate and high solubility, so after a quick wash and quick dry you could quickly suspend the oils in ethanol for storage and protection. Acetone will extract chloropyll easily too though, so contact with hops has to be minimal. If they have been processed and cut up the acetone only needs 10 seconds at most before filtering.