Mash hopping, are you doing it? - Thiols, chelating metals, aroma, habit.....

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I'm just starting to look into this as I'm 'Thiols Curious' and in this context the only point of mash hopping is to get some of the compounds needed to access thiols in fermentation out into the wort to make them accessible. However it requires certain yeasts to enable this so wont work with normal yeasts. The GM yeasts are not available in this country but WHC have a 'Thiol Producing Liquid Yeast' that has been genetically 'tinkered with' rather than full on modified so is available in the UK. So I'm jus planning a future batch to give this a whirl.

Again you need to choose your hops carefully too as you need a certain type of hop that is 'long lasting', specifically at the mash hop and whirlpool/hopstand and biotransformation dry hop during active fermentation, so their compounds survive through into the fermenter so they can be made available to the yeast. Hops that are not 'long lasting' the compounds will diminish quickly and wont be available for the yeast to work on.

I've tried 'biotransformation' many times and its just not happened, but this now makes sense according to the latest understandings on Thiols.
 

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I guess this is yet another example of the pervasiveness of Hazy's and the quest for in your face aromas and flavours. That thiols are only of importance to juice bombs. I suspect brewers of lager, bitter or porter have known about the subtle layered contribution of thiols for centuries.

I think I'm looking at the long game with mash hopping, looking for the advantages that won't necessarily be apparent with a one off experiment. The Sir Dave Brailsford school of marginal gains.
 
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The GM yeasts are not available in this country but WHC have a 'Thiol Producing Liquid Yeast' that has been genetically 'tinkered with' rather than full on modified so is available in the UK.
Well any kind of "tinkering" without a licence is very very illegal in the UK (and in most of the rest of Europe). My understanding is that WHC claim theirs is a "natural" selection of high-glucosidase yeasts like White Labs' WLP077 Tropicale, but I must admit I don't *quite* trust WHC, without knowing exactly what they've done. To get an idea of how White Labs did it, see this screen of their yeasts - the "best" was WLP300 Hefeweizen, followed by WLP830 (their version of 34/70), WLP400 Belgian Wit, WLP565 Belgian Saison I, WLP519 Stranda Kveik, WLP037 Yorkshire Square, WLP540 Abbey IV (~BE-256?), WLP410 Belgian Wit II and WLP039 (Nottingham).
https://www.whitelabs.com/news-update-detail?id=74
1684183840781.png

Compare that with Lallemand's equivalent, where Wit, their Hefe yeast and Notty all score highly, along with Verdant (1318 derivative) and BRY-97 (Chico family). There does seem to be a bit of a theme emerging.
1684184032458.png

Molitor's Master's thesis funded by Lallemand is interesting for those who want to go into the Lallemand stuff in more depth, he also uses transgenic yeast from Berkeley to explore the effect of really ramping up thiols. Not all thiols are good! Also spare a thought for the brewery whose IPA was used as a sensory standard for "sweaty"....
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/0k225k30rThe sensory panel found beers with higher levels of 3M4MPol, 4MMP, and 3MH to be associated with sweaty, vegetal, and overripe fruit, while the beers that were more closely related with 3MHA were associated with floral and tropical in their attributes.
 
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Currently drinking a NE Pale brewed with Hop Unlock yeast, releasing extra flavour potential from a mash addition of Chinook. I have to say it's remarkable. It doesn't matter what they do to NE pales, they're all indistinguishable in taste in the same one dimensional way. Dry hopped with Simcoe, El Dorado and Ekuanot, not seen that combination a thousand times before. Meh.
 
Currently drinking a NE Pale brewed with Hop Unlock yeast, releasing extra flavour potential from a mash addition of Chinook. I have to say it's remarkable. It doesn't matter what they do to NE pales, they're all indistinguishable in taste in the same one dimensional way. Dry hopped with Simcoe, El Dorado and Ekuanot, not seen that combination a thousand times before. Meh.
Agreed there is only so much juice or flavour you can get in the can.
 
I'm currently trialling using freeze dried passionfruit, pineapple, papaya, grape and spinach powders to increase beta-lyase activity as well as cys- glut-3mh & 3mhs precursors in addition to a non GM high beta-lyase activity yeast. Hoping to see improvements with either cascade or saaz mash hopping additions as well. I'm removing the biotransformation hops as the bound thiols from the hopstand hops should be enough alone.
 

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