Adding hop flavor/aroma to brewed beer?

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badun

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A buddy and I were brainstorming way to add hop goodness to bad beer. Not necessarily bad beer, but beer that needs hops. Picture this: You're at a bar with your buddies and they order a pitcher of Bud Light. You don't want to be rude and decline the offer of free beer even if it does suck (assume that they offered to let you drink for free, you left your wallet at home, the bar only serves crap beer, etc.). So you whip 'x' out of your pocket and add it to your mug, which gives you at least a bit more flavor and aroma.

We're trying to figure out if it's possible to find 'x'. We started by adding hop pellets to empty tea bags. My friend did this with a fairly high alpha brew and couldn't tell a difference. I used a higher alpha bittering hop and a lower alpha pale ale. I tasted a hint more bitterness in the first sip, but nothing more than that. So we crossed using hop pellets off the list.

What about whole hops? I don't have any now but will later when my plants bear fruit. Hop oil? Essence? Lost cause? Other opinions?
 
I've never tried it, but there is this: NORTHERN BREWER: Northern Brewer's HopShot

hopshot.jpg
 
I guess you could carry around some whole leaf in your pocket, or get some hop oil. I've never tasted hop oil that I know of, and surprisingly I've never put a hop leaf in a glass of beer before either... I am so doing that tonight.

I'm not sure how much aroma either would add, TBH. If they ordered a pitches of Bud Light I'd just go to the bar and order something else. Everyone may not agree with this but I personally would rather pay for good beer than drink free Bud Light.
 
I've put leaf hops into my beer before. It can work well.

I've also made ale tea before. I added fresh wort and some whole leaf hops into some earl gray tea. It was good :)
 
There was a thread here a while back talking about dropping a pelllet hop into a less than hoppy beer. I never tried it as I typically avoid places that serve bad beer.
 
Freshops.com sells hop oil in little bottles. Works OK but not like the real thing IMO.
 
The bad beer example was just one scenario. For example, I currently only have a clone of Old Speckled Hen on hand while I wait for an Imperial IPA to come of age. Since I'm jonesing for some hops I've been buying a bomber of Ruination a week just to tide me over. If I had fresh hops I would definitely build a Hopinator, but in the meantime I'd be happy with something that came close in taste and aroma to the real deal.

I ordered a HopShot from NB and will try that.
 
There was a thread here a while back talking about dropping a pelllet hop into a less than hoppy beer. I never tried it as I typically avoid places that serve bad beer.
I tried that once, with very high hopes, but actually thought it was a little disappointing. It did add a nice bit of aroma, but it also turned the last third of the beer into a gunky green stew. Overall I think it was a more enjoyable beer without the pellet. :(
 
Freshops.com sells hop oil in little bottles. Works OK but not like the real thing IMO.

I was curios about that stuff from Freshops. I've been wanting to make some nonalcoholic beer for my girlfriend's father by the method of heating a batch at 180 for 30-40 minutes to evaporate the alcohol, followed by force carbonating, but you generally also lose aroma compounds. Do you think this would act as a reasonable replacement for some hop flavor/aroma in a pale ale? Any opinion on what type of hops might have been used to make the stuff, and what kind of a flavor/aroma it has? Thanks.

-Matt
 
The hop oil (from Freshops) I've got seems to be one of the citrus hops. I think it is a very good thing to have around. It isn't a replacement for dry hopping, but it has saved a number of 'hoppy' ales that were in storage too long.

I'll try to remember to ask Dave next time I see him, but you could just send him an email.
 
Forgot to post the results of my Hop Shot test. But first, a quiz! What happens when you mix oil and water? That's right, they don't mix! A Hop Shot is hop oil so what do you think happens when you squirt a refrigerated syringe of hop oil into a cold beer? It sits on the surface in a wormy looking bunch. I tried to mix it as best as I could, but it was impossible to fully suspend the oil. The beer did have a much improved hop aroma (I forget what I used, but it was a low IBU pale ale) and I did get a hop flavor out of it. But I also got chunks of congealed hop oil in each sip and they were so concentrated that the taste was unpleasant. And about an hour later I noticed a burning sensation in my lips that lasted most of the evening! That concluded my experiments with trying to supplement the hop flavor a brewed beer. :eek:
 
I was talking about homebrewing with a rep from Stone at the local pub a few nights ago, and this subject came up. I mentioned my current batch of Irish Red ale that doesn't have the flavor I wanted (it's the one that tasted like stale bread at first) and he suggested I dry hop it in the keg. Not really to style for an Irish Red, but then it didn't really turn out to style anyway. I'm hesitant to throw a bunch of hop pellets in the keg to block up the tube, but Hop Shot sounded interesting for this purpose at first, but if it won't mix... maybe I'm back to hop pellets.
 
Nah! Try this: Couple years ago, in supermarket, I spied in the spice aisle, spices extracted by liquid carbon dioxide(our friend) and then put into some less-troublesome solvent, for sale. Well, why not skip the CO2 step. Some states have available 95% alcohol by special order. Try soaking hops in a leeeeeeetl bit of this stuff, to extract the flavor oils. I haven't tried it yet (but I sure as hell intend to), so, good luck. The extra alcohol will alter the taste of the beer(pity), but not as much as isopropyl alcohol would. The advantage would be, you could let solids settle, and decant off the flavors, carry in a bottle, splash on all underhopped products. Oh, yes, and, being in concentrated alcohol, it will NEVER decay. Good luck!
 
Have a French Press? Some brew pubs will put whole leaf hops in a French Press, fill with beer, then press and pour. It is supposed to increase hop flavor and aroma quite a bit. I have been wanting to try it, but have not as yet.

hop press.jpg
 
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