Hopping Without Wort

[Hophead]

Can anyone help?


Is it possible to boil the hops (for bittering or flavour) in water or a weak DME solution, to add to the wort when cooled? Or do the hops need to interact with the malt in some way?

 

[barfridge]

You can do hops seperately and add them later. Somebody around here (sorry, cant remember who at the moment), is quite keen on this for dry hopping in particular, claims it prevents any grassy flavour or aromas from the hops entering the wort.

Just remember a great side effect of hops is its antibacterial properties, so if you're brewing a wort without hops, be extra careful with your sanitation. Apart from that I see no worries doing as you suggest.

 

[Darren]

Can anyone help?


Is it possible to boil the hops (for bittering or flavour) in water or a weak DME solution, to add to the wort when cooled? Or do the hops need to interact with the malt in some way?

My experience is that water won't work well at all. Why do you wish to do this?
cheers
Darren

 

[Murray]

Dryhopping is best done as barfridge suggests, in my experience. Throw them in a cup of boiled water for a few minutes.

As for bittering, I haven't tried it. The major differences between wort and water would be pH, buffering capacity and osmotic strength. I would be interested in seeing informed posts about this.

 

[Jovial_Monk]

Brewers in the early 19th century often boiled the hops in water, then added this 'tea' to their wort

probably one way of standardising bitterness

the word now is that wort compounds are needed to extract the bitterness

Jovial Monk