Tony1951
Bungling Amateur
I've been REALLY enjoying my American Pales with those fruity hops and I did a bit of reading around the hop oils that give those flavours and aromas. From what I can gather the flavour oil I prize so much is Mycene. We all know those flavours and aromas evaporate with too much boiling, and I noticed a big increase in 'hoppy - fruity' burst in the mouth flavour when I added my flame out hops after cooling the wort to below 80C before adding them.
While I was reading about this elusive Myrcene oil, I discovered that it is an aromatic hydrocarbon, I noticed that it evaporates at above 64C. This suggests to me that putting in sixty grammes of expensive American hops at ten or fifteen minutes before turning off and cooling the wort is a waste of time, because you are boiling the oil away for at least twenty minutes..... Have I got this right?
What I am thinking is that on my next APA brew, I will cool my wort down to about 65C, draw off ten litres of wort into a big pot, and then put in ALL of the late and flame out hops at BELOW the evaporation temperature of the Myrcene and let them stew there, gently cooling while I drop the temperature of the rest of the wort down to pitching temperature. When the late hops are cool, I will add the lot back to the FV part of the batch, leaving in the hops. I WANT those flavours so why wave the hops over the wort and then chuck them away?
I have written before about leaving my late hops in the brew while it fermented and I got really great results from that. Myqul tried that and he wrote about it and thought he liked it, albeit that at first he thought it had a slightly soapy flavour until it matured when he thought it was a surprisingly good beer.
I'd welcome any comments from people experienced in this kind of thing. Thanks.
Cheers
While I was reading about this elusive Myrcene oil, I discovered that it is an aromatic hydrocarbon, I noticed that it evaporates at above 64C. This suggests to me that putting in sixty grammes of expensive American hops at ten or fifteen minutes before turning off and cooling the wort is a waste of time, because you are boiling the oil away for at least twenty minutes..... Have I got this right?
What I am thinking is that on my next APA brew, I will cool my wort down to about 65C, draw off ten litres of wort into a big pot, and then put in ALL of the late and flame out hops at BELOW the evaporation temperature of the Myrcene and let them stew there, gently cooling while I drop the temperature of the rest of the wort down to pitching temperature. When the late hops are cool, I will add the lot back to the FV part of the batch, leaving in the hops. I WANT those flavours so why wave the hops over the wort and then chuck them away?
I have written before about leaving my late hops in the brew while it fermented and I got really great results from that. Myqul tried that and he wrote about it and thought he liked it, albeit that at first he thought it had a slightly soapy flavour until it matured when he thought it was a surprisingly good beer.
I'd welcome any comments from people experienced in this kind of thing. Thanks.
Cheers