Re-using Hops...

[cleaninglady]

Hi All

So before you say WTF ??? , hear me out...

I have tried a couple of times using Hops after Dry Hopping as boil hops , have been considering doing the same where flavour hops are called for.

Initially , I thought i'd try this as i guessed not all the resins in the hops would be dissolved by two weeks in a secondary.

I'd like to hear of any experience/comments with this from other brewers.

cheers

cL

 

[manticle]

Nick JD does it I think.

Personally I think it would be difficult to calculate the exact AA, particularly if you are re-using a flavour addition.

People find various methods of penny pinching so whatever works for you. I see it a little bit akin to re-using the sugar that hasn't quite dissolved at the bottom of a cup or rolling a new cigarette from the butts of the old ones.

 

[cleaninglady]

Nick JD does it I think.

Personally I think it would be difficult to calculate the exact AA, particularly if you are re-using a flavour addition.

People find various methods of penny pinching so whatever works for you. I see it a little bit akin to re-using the sugar that hasn't quite dissolved at the bottom of a cup or rolling a new cigarette from the butts of the old ones.

Not intending to re-use Flavour hops ever , just Dry Hopped stuff.
I always put my hops in stockings for boils and dry-hopping to keep the plant material out of the wort
Yep , i'm definately penny pinching here. I'm coming up on my 10th brew since i started in early March and still experimenting.

 

[manticle]

Misunderstood.

Like I said - if it works for you then go for it. Myself I'll re-use yeast but fresh hops for me. Yeast is a living organism that reproduces in the beer. Hops were a living organism but are no longer so I prefer to use the fresh ingredient - same as I would use fresh vegetables each time I made a meal.

 

[Bribie G]

Commercial breweries that use hop backs almost invariably re-use the semi-spent hops as part of the bittering addition in the next brew. As Manticle says you would have to be right on the ball however. I often do something like this, not for tightarse reasons but for the following evil plan:

I no chill, and late kettle aroma hop additions can get nuked in the boiling wort in the cube, and turn out very muted. You nearly always find this with Fresh Wort Kits (which are just no chilled cubes of wort)
So I regularly do the following (which works best with hop flowers / plugs).

For aromatic beers such as German Pils or other Euro Lagers and the odd APA (I don't often make USA beers but same principle applies) I use a 1L coffee plunger from Woolies (French Press) and make 500ml of strong hop tea which I store in a sterilised jar in the fridge. The pressings are used for the bittering addition and boiled as normal. Then either: tip the tea into the cube once it's below 80 degrees or into the fermenter when pitching. That way you are 'quarantining' the aroma and a lot of the flavour component and adding it post-cube. I find it works best with SMASH beers - e.g. my NZ Hallertau Pils. I'm becoming more inclined to add to warm cube rather than fermenter to 'blend in' a bit better perhaps. Still work in progress.

However I see no difficulty in french pressing to get hop tea as an alternative to dry hopping and freeze the pressings for your next brew to contribute to your bittering. However +1 again with Manticle you are somewhat flying by the seat of the pants because you don't know precisely how much AA is left in the pressings.

Fine for quaffing beers IMHO, give it a go - the litre model is about $15 from Woolies essentials range. :icon_cheers:

 

[cleaninglady]

Misunderstood.

Like I said - if it works for you then go for it. Myself I'll re-use yeast but fresh hops for me. Yeast is a living organism that reproduces in the beer. Hops were a living organism but are no longer so I prefer to use the fresh ingredient - same as I would use fresh vegetables each time I made a meal.

Cheers Manticle , good to hear from someone...i may try once more and see how it turns out.
With a bit more experience tasting it may not taste like it did a few months ago.

cL

 

[cleaninglady]

Commercial breweries that use hop backs almost invariably re-use the semi-spent hops as part of the bittering addition in the next brew. As Manticle says you would have to be right on the ball however. I often do something like this, not for tightarse reasons but for the following evil plan:

I no chill, and late kettle aroma hop additions can get nuked in the boiling wort in the cube, and turn out very muted. You nearly always find this with Fresh Wort Kits (which are just no chilled cubes of wort)
So I regularly do the following (which works best with hop flowers / plugs).

For aromatic beers such as German Pils or other Euro Lagers and the odd APA (I don't often make USA beers but same principle applies) I use a 1L coffee plunger from Woolies (French Press) and make 500ml of strong hop tea which I store in a sterilised jar in the fridge. The pressings are used for the bittering addition and boiled as normal. Then either: tip the tea into the cube once it's below 80 degrees or into the fermenter when pitching. That way you are 'quarantining' the aroma and a lot of the flavour component and adding it post-cube. I find it works best with SMASH beers - e.g. my NZ Hallertau Pils. I'm becoming more inclined to add to warm cube rather than fermenter to 'blend in' a bit better perhaps. Still work in progress.

However I see no difficulty in french pressing to get hop tea as an alternative to dry hopping and freeze the pressings for your next brew to contribute to your bittering. However +1 again with Manticle you are somewhat flying by the seat of the pants because you don't know precisely how much AA is left in the pressings.

Fine for quaffing beers IMHO, give it a go - the litre model is about $15 from Woolies essentials range. :icon_cheers:

Great tip BribieG , thanks !

When i re-use Dry Hop hops , I pretty much just grab the stocking from the secondary and wrap it up and freeze it.
I figure any yeast there will just become nutrient in the boil.

cL

 

[Nick JD]

20g of a high AA hop that's been in a fermenter dry hopping a brew is even better than one that hasn't if you only want the AAs, and no flavour/aroma.

Win:win. I've currently got 15g of PoR in a 2L juice bottle in my Cupboard 'O Beer soaking for a few weeks for my next Carlton Clone. Gonna suck the flavour right out of that mutha.

 

[katzke]

You dry hop for 2 weeks? Isnt that pushing it?

I have reused French Press hops twice. If it was for a bitter critical beer, like an IPA, then I am not sure I would do it. Both were wheat beers and the second one is about to be transferred to the keg. The first one was good.

I both cases I froze the hops for later use.

 

[Ross]

Commercial breweries that use hop backs almost invariably re-use the semi-spent hops as part of the bittering addition in the next brew.

Care to name a few Bribie? With all the spent wort in the hops they'd need to be reboiling allmost straight away & getting the quantities right could be a bit of a pita.
I'm not saying that breweries don't do this, but is it really the norm? I've personally never seen them reused.


Cheers Ross

 

[Nick JD]

You dry hop for 2 weeks? Isn't that pushing it?

The PoR? Not dry hopping ... in its own tea (2L sterile water). The tea gets chucked and the hops used at the 60 minute addition. The tea smells wonderful, but I don't want the beer to.

I want bitter but with no flavour.

 

[manticle]

I think Katzke meant OP.

 

[Nick JD]

I think Katzke meant OP.

Oh - you're right.

 

[MHB]

Then why not do what Carlton do use ISO Hop

MHB

 

[RdeVjun]

OP: FWIW, I've had no problems re- using hops for bittering after they've been used for French Pressing, so methode a la BribieG. One of my best ESBs, and that's not just my own opinion either, was partly- bittered with Styrian that had tea- ed a previous batch, a few others since have been much the same.
It seems to work at 1:1 ratio with the inward mass of the previously- used hops as a bittering addition, no adjustment for losses seems necessary (which was quite surprising). However, I work with fairly low bittering levels of around 30IBUs in my ESBs, it may become problematic doing the same in more highly- bittered beers, that would not surprise me.

For me it is largely just an economics decision (not so much the actual saving, but I do loathe waste) and I don't have a rule which says I must do this, but it works well- enough for me to continue to do so. I don't always use hops tea either, so not every batch is treated in this way.

Hope this helps! :icon_cheers:

 

[Nick JD]

Then why not do what Carlton do use ISO Hop

MHB

It's expensive, doesn't store well and causes haze.

 

[MHB]

It's expensive, doesn't store well and causes haze.

Sorry going to disagree, a 100 mL bottle of Iso Hop at 30% Iso-Alpha cost about $40.00 that works out at $1.33/ g of Iso.
Compared to (as an example) 100 g of Pride of Ringwood that would cost $10, has about 10% AA, on a good day you might get 30% utilisation, so that's $3.33/g of Iso
The shelf life of Iso is usually 1 year at air temperatures', so there isn't really any issue with its storability.
Never heard that it causes haze, in fact most of the worlds super pale beers use hop extract, is the Carlton you want to copy hazy?

Sadly I think you have set a new record for wrongness 3 in a single sentence must be a new low.
Now if you said it tastes like crap I might have agreed with you, the beer certainly does.

MHB

 

[QldKev]

Sorry going to disagree, a 100 mL bottle of Iso Hop at 30% Iso-Alpha cost about $40.00 that works out at $1.33/ g of Iso.
Compared to (as an example) 100 g of Pride of Ringwood that would cost $10, has about 10% AA, on a good day you might get 30% utilisation, so that's $3.33/g of Iso
The shelf life of Iso is usually 1 year at air temperatures', so there isn't really any issue with its storability.
Never heard that it causes haze, in fact most of the worlds super pale beers use hop extract, is the Carlton you want to copy hazy?

Sadly I think you have set a new record for wrongness 3 in a single sentence must be a new low.
Now if you said it tastes like crap – I might have agreed with you, the beer certainly does.

MHB

lol Nick JD fail again...
Is there a pattern here?
Tooheys for the win....

I'd rather have a good beer.




QldKev

 

[Batz]

Sorry going to disagree, a 100 mL bottle of Iso Hop at 30% Iso-Alpha cost about $40.00 that works out at $1.33/ g of Iso.
Compared to (as an example) 100 g of Pride of Ringwood that would cost $10, has about 10% AA, on a good day you might get 30% utilisation, so that's $3.33/g of Iso
The shelf life of Iso is usually 1 year at air temperatures', so there isn't really any issue with its storability.
Never heard that it causes haze, in fact most of the worlds super pale beers use hop extract, is the Carlton you want to copy hazy?

Sadly I think you have set a new record for wrongness 3 in a single sentence must be a new low.
Now if you said it tastes like crap I might have agreed with you, the beer certainly does.

MHB

:lol: :drinks:

 

[Nick JD]

Sorry going to disagree, a 100 mL bottle of Iso Hop at 30% Iso-Alpha cost about $40.00 that works out at $1.33/ g of Iso.
Compared to (as an example) 100 g of Pride of Ringwood that would cost $10, has about 10% AA, on a good day you might get 30% utilisation, so that's $3.33/g of Iso
The shelf life of Iso is usually 1 year at air temperatures', so there isn't really any issue with its storability.
Never heard that it causes haze, in fact most of the worlds super pale beers use hop extract, is the Carlton you want to copy hazy?

Sadly I think you have set a new record for wrongness 3 in a single sentence must be a new low.
Now if you said it tastes like crap – I might have agreed with you, the beer certainly does.

MHB

Doesn't sound like you've used isohop before. For a start, as soon as it's opened it's got a shelf life of a couple of months at best. FAIL #1.

I just bought a kg of PoR hops for $26 - at $10 for 100g ... yes, that's expensive - but only your costomers would be that stupid, surely. You're still in business. FAIL #2.

When do you add isohop? Pre filter ... why? You answer that fancypants - you're the smartarse here. FAIL #3.

Pull ya head in mate. You've got some great knowledge to give to this forum - don't cloud it by showing everyone you don't know something...

And saying all CUB beers taste like "crap" is just plain dumb. They may not be all fancy and fruity and refined and claaaaaassssy, like fellas who only drink imported beers - but they are quite enjoyable (ok, not VB). You've drunken a bucket load of CUB beers in your time, don't bullshit us - we all have. Being all wise about Aussie Lagers being shit is just so passe. Get some new material.

Anyway, last I hear from you because this time you just earned a promotion to the IGNORE LIST. Please, oh please add me to yours - the chip on your shoulder must be getting heavy.