Smoking Hops (with wood on a bbq, not like a pothead)

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sidepart

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Update: I'd call it a success.

Every topic I've found so far on this involves people asking if they can stuff it in a bong, or roll it into a joint.

Not interested.

I want to try infusing some finishing hops with a hickory or mesquite smokiness. Basically I want to get the grill going, and while I spend the day smoking some excellent ribs, I want to see if it's possible to smoke my hops as well.

Would this just ruin the hops? Severely change it's AA%? Totally change the profile?

Has anyone done this? And if so, for how long?

Just a curiosity. If no one knows, I'll probably try it in a few weeks. If it's awful, I'll maybe try making a smokey extract out of oak barrels and everclear or something.
 
I'm interested too. F'in dopers ruining the search...

Also, I'm interested in using hops as the smoking item. A local brewery smoked onions with hops before they turned them into friend onion rings. I'm curious how this works. It'd be awesome if you could do this with spent hops.
 
There was a thread a while back about the same thing. I believe consensus was it'll ruin the delicate oils & acid in the hops. Smoking grain works great though.

Edit: Nevermind, it was about smoking grain with hops smoke:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hop-smoked-grain-324251/

But I still think it'll ruin the hops. If you're going for a hickory / mesquite smokiness, I would highly recommend smoking your grain...that definitely works.
 
If you were going to do this, I would think you'd want to start with fresh wet hops. They need to be dried anyway, so you could smoke them at the same time (you would want to keep the temp as low as possible). With already-dried hops, I'm guessing they'd get way too crispy. Though maybe if you soaked them first, and/or kept them misted down while smoking?
 
TyTanium said:
There was a thread a while back about the same thing. I believe consensus was it'll ruin the delicate oils & acid in the hops.
...
But I still think it'll ruin the hops. If you're going for a hickory / mesquite smokiness, I would highly recommend smoking your grain...that definitely works.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I agree. They definitely won't be any good for bittering/hop aroma contributions, but I can see them being used in delicate beers like lambics where you would use aged hops.

I also really really really like the idea of smoking other things with hop smoke. Obviously, somebody's going to have to do these experiments.
 
I agree that cold smoking would be the only way to do it (although admittedly I dont know what temp that would be). Smoking in the same manner as you would ribs would surely cook the hops and likely render them useless. I would love to try the end product if you do indeed try this though!
 
daksin said:
I'm not sure I agree. They definitely won't be any good for bittering/hop aroma contributions, but I can see them being used in delicate beers like lambics where you would use aged hops.

I also really really really like the idea of smoking other things with hop smoke. Obviously, somebody's going to have to do these experiments.
Click to expand...

I agree with you in both of the cases above. Definitely cold smoke, as stated above.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. I might look into two options based on the feedback. Cold smoking (if I can figure it out) or getting my hands on some wet hops to smoke.

daksin said:
I'm not sure I agree. They definitely won't be any good for bittering/hop aroma contributions, but I can see them being used in delicate beers like lambics where you would use aged hops.

I also really really really like the idea of smoking other things with hop smoke. Obviously, somebody's going to have to do these experiments.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I'm going for with these hops since they won't need to bitter the beer so much. I might even take a higher AA% hop and smoke it to reduce its acidity in this case. It's probably crazy but I plan on putting them into a hefeweizen. Crisp clean citrus smoke beer, great for those summer bbq's.

Since this is my 2nd or 3rd brew, I may be way off base thinking this is a good idea. I plan to play around with the recipe I'm developing. I'll try smoked hops. If it's not the clever subtle flavor infusion I'm looking for, I might turn to tossing in some Briess smoked grain.

All in all there's a story behind the smoked hops. I'm calling the beer "Smokey Al" after my grandpa who went blind because of smoking. Apparently people have attempted to smoke hops, so it's only fitting to make it part of the beer. Since it's a weizen, I figure if you look through the haze, you'll see the world as he saw it (only more golden I'll imagine).

(/end too much info about my project)

Thanks again for the help folks.
 
Cold smoking is easy. One way is to get a small (6 gal I think) galvanized trash can and put a small terra-cotta pot full of wood chips in it. Rig up a rack for your hops/cheese/ etc. (I used an old cooling rack for baking and some baling wire.) Shove the business end of a soldering iron into the pot of chips and cover.

There's lots of other ways to rig up something similar.
 
Ravenshead said:
Cold smoking is easy. One way is to get a small (6 gal I think) galvanized trash can and put a small terra-cotta pot full of wood chips in it. Rig up a rack for your hops/cheese/ etc. (I used an old cooling rack for baking and some baling wire.) Shove the business end of a soldering iron into the pot of chips and cover.

There's lots of other ways to rig up something similar.
Click to expand...

Just looked it up, and it does seem really easy. Soldering Iron, can of wood chips. Stuff the iron in and place the hops and can in an enclosed area. I might use my grill to house it instead.

I'll try it out and post a review. Here's a thread with the recipe I'm going for if anyone's interested in critiquing it:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/most-unconventional-hefeweizen-youve-heard-333114/
 
I would like to see your results if you try. I don't see the upside, just potential downsides. As I never seem to have enough time to brew, let alone grow hops. I would use one of the more traditional and easier methods to introduce smoke.
 
bcgpete said:
well aren't we?

one day I'll get better at conveying sarcasm via text:mug:
Click to expand...

Damn lack of facial expressions and intonation on the internet....

I get a little sensitive when it comes to that subject since I legitimately use it for the pain in my back from two herniated disks and the fact that I constantly have people (family included) try to make me feel like a deadbeat criminal because of it.
:mug:
 
turkeyjerky214 said:
Damn lack of facial expressions and intonation on the internet....

I get a little sensitive when it comes to that subject since I legitimately use it for the pain in my back from two herniated disks and the fact that I constantly have people (family included) try to make me feel like a deadbeat criminal because of it.
:mug:
Click to expand...

Oh hey, figure I should add that in spite of my thread title I'm totally ok with trees.
 
Just wanted to give an update to this thread in case anyone else is doing research.

The cold smoking trick worked fantastically. For my last brew I did the following:

  • Cold smoked 1oz Citra leaf with applewood for 2 hours.
  • Occasional (every 30 mins?) spray the leaf with water from a spritzer.
  • Added the Citra to the secondary fermenter and racked the beer ontop.
  • Dry Hopped for 7 days.

Just some notes, the hops just needed to be damp to absorb the smoke, not WET. I used a cheapo 60W soldering iron. Apparently it's god awful at maintaining a bead of solder, so useless for soldering...but hey for $6 it sure gets hot. Stuck some small applewood chips in coke can (cut the lid off) and jabbed the iron in there. Had some issues maintaining the smoke from time to time, and had to swizzle the iron around so it'd burn more of the wood. I think this process might work better if the applewood chips were even thinner (saw dust? maybe not that fine, but more ground up). I put all of this into my gas grill so it'd be enclosed. Didn't turn the grill on.

At first I didn't notice any smoke. It became more noticeable after a few days. It's a very very subtle smoke, but you can tell it's there. It actually gave an interesting citrus (lemon) and apple flavor/aroma to the finished wheat beer.

Kind of curious how well this process would work on fresh wet hops. I'm picking up some fresh citra in September. Was thinking of making a Surly Wet clone (or just your standard IPA). Maybe I'll consider adding a touch of smoke to it. ...Although I bet half of the HBT community would murder me for doing such a thing to such gloriously fresh hops.
 
sidepart said:
Just wanted to give an update to this thread in case anyone else is doing research.

The cold smoking trick worked fantastically. For my last brew I did the following:

  • Cold smoked 1oz Citra leaf with applewood for 2 hours.
  • Occasional (every 30 mins?) spray the leaf with water from a spritzer.
  • Added the Citra to the secondary fermenter and racked the beer ontop.
  • Dry Hopped for 7 days.

Just some notes, the hops just needed to be damp to absorb the smoke, not WET. I used a cheapo 60W soldering iron. Apparently it's god awful at maintaining a bead of solder, so useless for soldering...but hey for $6 it sure gets hot. Stuck some small applewood chips in coke can (cut the lid off) and jabbed the iron in there. Had some issues maintaining the smoke from time to time, and had to swizzle the iron around so it'd burn more of the wood. I think this process might work better if the applewood chips were even thinner (saw dust? maybe not that fine, but more ground up). I put all of this into my gas grill so it'd be enclosed. Didn't turn the grill on.

At first I didn't notice any smoke. It became more noticeable after a few days. It's a very very subtle smoke, but you can tell it's there. It actually gave an interesting citrus (lemon) and apple flavor/aroma to the finished wheat beer.

Kind of curious how well this process would work on fresh wet hops. I'm picking up some fresh citra in September. Was thinking of making a Surly Wet clone (or just your standard IPA). Maybe I'll consider adding a touch of smoke to it. ...Although I bet half of the HBT community would murder me for doing such a thing to such gloriously fresh hops.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update! I believe this is the only relevant thread where someone actually posted the results. Good to know it works! I'll definitely be trying this sometime in the future.
 
bcgpete said:
Thanks for the update! I believe this is the only relevant thread where someone actually posted the results. Good to know it works! I'll definitely be trying this sometime in the future.
Click to expand...

Let me know if it works out for you. Hopefully it's not just my imagination. I had at least two others tell me they could sense some smokiness from the final gravity sample I took. Definitely not the kind you'd get from smoke malt, so I probably wouldn't do this to smoke a porter. But hey, seems to have worked ok for the smoked hefeweizen without increasing the gravity by adding smoke malt.

I'll update again once the beer has time to condition for 2 weeks...then we'll REALLY know what effect it has.
 
sidepart said:
Just looked it up, and it does seem really easy. Soldering Iron, can of wood chips. Stuff the iron in and place the hops and can in an enclosed area. I might use my grill to house it instead.

I'll try it out and post a review. Here's a thread with the recipe I'm going for if anyone's interested in critiquing it:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/most-unconventional-hefeweizen-youve-heard-333114/
Click to expand...

I wonder if you could do the same thing with wood that's already burning - just put out the fire and move it to your container. You might not have to wait as long to get a lot of smoke that way. Just a thought.
 
I'm going to be harvesting my first fresh home grown hops. Finished a box fan dryer and ready to go. Been thinking about a short low temp smoke with my Brinkman charcoal smoker, then finish with the fan dryer. I know the temp has to stay low (100 or less). What does anyone think?
John
 
jkendal said:
I wonder if you could do the same thing with wood that's already burning - just put out the fire and move it to your container. You might not have to wait as long to get a lot of smoke that way. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

I honestly didn't have any problems getting a lot of smoke once I worked out my contraption. Probably don't have to wait 2 hours...I just wanted to make sure they got nice an smoked through.

jstraight said:
I'm going to be harvesting my first fresh home grown hops. Finished a box fan dryer and ready to go. Been thinking about a short low temp smoke with my Brinkman charcoal smoker, then finish with the fan dryer. I know the temp has to stay low (100 or less). What does anyone think?
John
Click to expand...

Not sure what sweating the hops at 100 would do, sounds interesting. Wonder if you'd get some kind of caramelization?

I'm going to reserve some of my wet hops from this year and freeze them. Then I'll repeat my Smokey Al recipe with smoked wet hops using the same process I already did. If the warm smoke works out well for you, let me know...maybe I'll try that instead.
 

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