Hop Utilisation Question

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Woola

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Hi all, i'd like to get your opinion/experiences on the effect of reduced hop utilisation when used in small wort volumes. To give you some background, i was planning on making a german pilsner on the weekend, however the hops needed for flavour and aroma additions didn't arrive in the mail in time. I followed the original recipe without any of the late hop additions, pitched yeast and began ferment. Two days later the hops arrived, so i drew off around 4L of fermenting wort, heated to boiling temp and made the 20min, 10min 0min additions. Quickly chilled back down to fermentation temp and added back to main fermenting batch.

I've read in a few different places that utilisation of hop alpha acids is reduced if the hops are used in a concentrated wort that is then diluted out (beersmith even has a calculator to estimate this), however what i'm not sure of is the effect of hop utilisation in terms of flavour and aroma compounds? Would these also be reduced along with the bitterness or are the essential oils still extracted regardless of the volume they are boiled in?

Hope this makes sense?
 
What you did was make a "hop tea". Lots of guys on here do that (including myself) as a form of late hopping to add aroma. Since you boiled for 20 min you would also get some flavour and bitterness. I typically only use about 1-2 L of wort to make a hop tea for a 20L batch and still get heaps of aroma so I think you'll be alright.
 
My understanding is that you would have lost a % of the hops oils due to boiling in a small amount of wort, however this may be balanced by the lower gravity (2 days fermented already...)?

You probably boiled off a few points of alcohol % to...
 
You didn't have a concentrated wort it was the same SG as the entire batch therefore hop utilisation would be the same. Except you need to account for the dilution of IBU & flavour into the entire batch. But since you only did 20 mins it wouldn't make much diff to IBU

Cheers, Mat
 
You have also cooked some of the yeast. You may get lucky, but if your finished beer has meaty/vegemite notes you'll know where you went wrong...
 
You have also cooked some of the yeast. You may get lucky, but if your finished beer has meaty/vegemite notes you'll know where you went wrong...

Interesting.. What is the difference in adding a packet of yeast to the boil for "nutrience". Will that have the same effect?

I have seenthis givenas advise and have done it myself based on that advise. Never noticed any "off" flavours though.

Cheers, Mat.
 
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