Hop Tea

[EHCosbie]

Is adding a hop tea going to give me the same result as adding hops to the later part of the boil?

If not, how is it different? I have never made a hop tea and am curious.

Any opinions/ experiences/ advice welcome.

Thanks

Ed

 

[stesmi]

I've got a feeling you'll get a few different answers to this, but here's my tuppence worth. Basically a hop tea (I.e adding your hops to a cup of boiling water for 5 minutes, then dumping in to your fv) will result in more aroma than any boil addition. As soon as you boil hops it immediately starts to lose aroma and adds bitterness. And this will reduce and increase respectively over time. It'll almost be like adding at flame-out, although the hops aren't sitting in hot water for so long. That's what I experience my end anyhoo :)

 

[terrym]

And here's my two penn'orth, which I've added because I learned something today. :thumb:. I was going to add a hop tea to my brew today instead of just a dry hop. The intention was to make the hop tea then chuck hops and liquid into the brew based on 55g Cascade pellets. I was going to steep the pellets in water at 80*C, not boiling cos it drives off some of the the hop oils you want to retain as aroma, and just allow to cool over 30mins. So I heated 100ml water and added it to the hops. Result was a fairly damp mass of hops. :-?. I have no idea how much water would be needed to make up a fairly mobile slurry, and didn't want to dilute my brew since I had not allowed for the excess liquid, so abandoned the idea and chucked the damp hops into the brew. Lesson learned.
Perhaps someone out there can advise how much water is needed to make up a 'tea' say ml water per 10g hop pellets.

 

[Druncan]

I use this method http://www.homebrewtalk.com/bittering-hops-in-15-minutes.html with hops and pellets. I put them in a muslin bag. 11 mins one litre water. 20g Bittering hops. Great quick solution to get bitterness. Just seems to work. I even adjust the bitterness during final fermentation prior to kegging. I do dry hop with 100g pellets as well.

 

[Hopping_Mad]

Many moons ago I saved the bags from the Festival 2 can beer kits that you stick their pellet hops in.

I stick my dry hop additions (pellet and leaf) in these and tie the top. The only reason I do a quick 'tea' (pan + boiling kettle water in pan to cover and 30 second boil turning bag) is to sterilise the bag and hops.

Leave to cool off a little, then in the FV.

No extra bits or suspension when bottling as all in the bag! :hat:

If you wait until fermentation stops then add for 2 - 3 days before bottling/kegging you get awesome additional aroma to some originally fairly bland kits!!!

 

[MyQul]

And here's my two penn'orth, which I've added because I learned something today. :thumb:. I was going to add a hop tea to my brew today instead of just a dry hop. The intention was to make the hop tea then chuck hops and liquid into the brew based on 55g Cascade pellets. I was going to steep the pellets in water at 80*C, not boiling cos it drives off some of the the hop oils you want to retain as aroma, and just allow to cool over 30mins. So I heated 100ml water and added it to the hops. Result was a fairly damp mass of hops. :-?. I have no idea how much water would be needed to make up a fairly mobile slurry, and didn't want to dilute my brew since I had not allowed for the excess liquid, so abandoned the idea and chucked the damp hops into the brew. Lesson learned.
Perhaps someone out there can advise how much water is needed to make up a 'tea' say ml water per 10g hop pellets.

I've always just passed the hop tea through a seive to strain out the hops, whenever I've done it

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi!
This is an interesting article: http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/01/21/late-hop-additions-and-hop-oils-in-beer-brewing/
especially this paragraph:
"I’ve been experimenting with moving most of my late boil additions to post boil - usually a combination of steeping some hops while cooling the wort and also dry hopping with good results. Many small commercial brewers are also extensively using these techniques with great results. I still use boil additions, though I now use them primarily for bitterness."

 

[MyQul]

I've done a number of brews with the hop shedule being just 60min and 0min (added after the wort has cooled to <80C) and they've always been tasty brews

 

[Druncan]

I've done a number of brews with the hop shedule being just 60min and 0min (added after the wort has cooled to <80C) and they've always been tasty brews

That sounds good! Do you think this would work with the no chill wort system?

The only practical problem I could see would be fishing the hop sock out. I also dry hop for the last 4-5days in the FV and it gives a lovely aroma with the Falconer's 7c's pellets :thumb:. 60g/23l seems to work for me.

 

[MyQul]

That sounds good! Do you think this would work with the no chill wort system?

The only practical problem I could see would be fishing the hop sock out. I also dry hop for the last 4-5days in the FV and it gives a lovely aroma with the Falconer's 7c's pellets :thumb:. 60g/23l seems to work for me.

Absolutely. I didnt use a hop sock or anything. On bottling day I just steeped my hops in 1L of <80C water for 20 mins (I purposely made my brewlength 1L short to accomodate for the hop tea) and poured the hpp tea into the FV and stirred gently. Then bottled

 

[Robin54]

On my last IPA I put my steeping hops in a caffetierve at 70 degrees for 20 minutes and pressed and added the FV and then bottled next day. seems to have worked fine