Steeping period when doing a boil

[Ben6942]

Hi, I have been playing around with hop additions lately and using Ian's Spreadsheet to help me out. Just wanted to know after I have done say a 20, 10, 0 hop addition, once I add the last amount at zero minutes and take it off the heat, how long should I let the hops steep for before adding the mixture to the fermenter?

 

[danestead]

Depends what you are trying to achieve from the hop additions.

The shorter the period the hops are in hot wort for, the more aroma you will get from them. If they are in there for say 20-30mins, you will get more hop character in the way of flavour and the aroma will have been mostly driven off. Even longer, about 60 mins, you will get mainly bitterness and not much in the way of flavour or aroma.

 

[Barge]

If your're doing it in a saucepan I would put the lid on when you take it off the heat and put it in the sink with some ice cold water. (cold tap water with some ice bricks). Give the saucepan a swirl every few minutes and add to the fermenter when it;s cooled down. The larger the volume the cooler you need it as it will affect the overall temp more. This obviously takes longer to cool. I find a 2L hop boil is pretty reasonable.

 

[mfeighan]

if you knock the temp pretty quicky under 80, i forgot the exact number you can leave it in there for a long time without extracting bitterness and still extract aroma

 

[Ben6942]

Thanks for the replies, I have been doing a 4L hop boil with 400g of LDME in a 7L stock pot and steeping for 20 minutes but have noticed when pitching the yeast the brew temp has been too high. I have calculated the correct bitterness I need/want for the boil so maybe putting it in an ice bath is the way to go to keep maximum flavour and aroma...

 

[Barge]

Just remember to swirl the pot as only the wort at the edges of the pot will cool down; the wort in the centre will be warmer.

If you leave the lid on you don't need to worry about infection. You can leave the pot for a while so it cools down enough. If you have room, you can put the pot in the fridge but only do that once it's cooled down most of the way. Your best option is to replace the cold water every so often to make it cool down as quick as possible.

 

[danestead]

It seems like people are talking about hop utilisation etc. Below is a table which I created with the help of a fellow AHB member which will enable you to get an idea of the bittering potential of your hops at different temperatures below boiling. It'll also give you more of an understanding of whether you will be getting bitterness, flavour or aroma from those hops.

Temp. / %
100 100%
95 66%
90 43%
85 28%
80 18%
75 11%
70 7%

The percentages are the percentage of IBU's you will get compared to a boil (100 degree) addition. Ie. If you steeped some hops for 10 minutes at 80 degrees, enter those hops in your brewing software as a 10 minute addition and then multiply the IBU's by 18% (0.18).