Hop smoked grain?

I have a great idea.. Or at least I think so.
I want to do a smoked ipa.
My plan is to use whole leaf hops to smoke a portion of my grain.
How bad/good of an idea is this.
I'll have to burn a good amount of hops to get good smoke, but I'm thinking it'll be worth the effort / expense.
What do you think?

sounds interesting.... i would think dried Hops would burn really quick and not really smolder which is what you need for good smoke.... i would try a mix of wood and Hops. get a good smolder going with the wood and add a handful of hops every few mins or so while it is smoking.... also pellet hops may be better for this as i think they would burn slower

I'd probably soak the hops in cold water before adding them to the fire. This may help get more smoke from them, rather than just burning up really fast. Sort of like when you soak wood chips for smoking meat.

I am very intrigued by this and have been contemplating trying to smoke some grains in my smoker. Soak the hops like you would your wood chunks so they smoke more I bet that would help reduce the amount of hops you would have to use. I have heard that hop smoke smells very similar to the smoke of it's cousin plant so keep that in mind as far as the flavor it would impart if that is good or bad in your opinion.

"I have heard that hop smoke smells very similar to the smoke of it's cousin plant"

One thing to keep in mind your neighbors may think you are doing other things besides brewing

Burning hops will destroy all of the flavor/aroma oils and degrade the bittering resins to uselessness. I doubt this would add anything positive to your beer.

There have been a few attempts to smoke hops (because they are related to cannabis) . If you do a bit of searching, you'll learn from others fails.

I find this to be a very interesting idea. Do let us know if you do it, and how it turns out.

Also, +1 to soaking in cold water first.

Not sure what you mean by "hop smoked grain", but you can certainly smoke hops.

"Smoking" the hops would not actually entail lighting them on fire and burning them.

You can setup a cheap smoker by assembling a deep hotel pan or steamer setup. You don't want there to be too little space between the burning wood and the hops, and you don't want to burn the hops so set the wood at the opposite end. The bottom pan lined with thick foil and topped with a small amount of apple or cherry wood chips, the top pan perforated and a snug fit with the bottom pan. Ignite the wood chips on top of the foil, add the hops to the top of the perforated pan, and then cover all of this with another tight fitting closed upside-down pan. You don't need a lot of wood chips, just a handful or so. Position them away from the hops (off to one side).

Something like this, but with a little more finesse (you can also use those one-use/throw away aluminum trays or a tight fitting deep saute pan: http://thehungrydudes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Smoker2.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TYXVFvrB1ek/TqoMeky3jRI/AAAAAAAADCM/XXic6EBP4V8/s1600/IMG_0258.JPG

The debate now is whether to use the smoked hops for FWH, bittering, late additions, or dryhop.

I think he wants to burn some of the hops, to make hop smoke, to smoke the grain. The grain is what will be smoked. The burned hops, I'm assuming, aren't going in the beer then.

Yeah... using smoked grain (which you can buy) and/or smoking your own hops would both be better bets. That way, you can still use the hops and they won't go to waste.

I guess you could poke a bunch of pins in the bottom of an aluminum tray, fill it with a shallow layer of grain and burn the hops with the cherry wood to smoke your own "hop smoked" grain. This is similar to a loose "tea" smoke, which chefs do all the time.

Personally I think this is a waste I hops.

But if you are set on it - try it and let's us know the results.

You could try it with spent hops.

Or homegrown hops or if you bought leaf hops and decided to stop using them.

TyTanium said:

You could try it with spent hops.

Click to expand...

Fantastic idea.. This may be my best bet..

And yes I just want the hops to give smoke to grains, so I will not be setting fire directly to them.
And I want to smoke my own grain because the smoked grain that you buy just never really has a good "fresh" smoke flavor to it.
I've found that it is best to smoke the grains right before they go into the mash.
My thoughts are to simply use hops instead of, say, cherry wood for example.
And no, I will not be putting the hops into the beer after I've used them in my smoker. I just want to experiment to see what aroma the will bestow into the grains, then to see how that translates into the finished beer.

With spent hops, you obviously have to get all that moisture out before you can ignite them for smoke. Without lighting them, how are you going to get smoke if you're not using wood? And if you burn the hops on their own, the smoke won't last too long at all. Look up "loose tea smoking" and get some ideas.

Edit: Here you go: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/07/tea-smoked-chicken-wings.html

I will most likely use some spent hops, which will already be wet, and some fresh, which I'll soak in some ice water for an hour or so.

ajm163 said:

"I have heard that hop smoke smells very similar to the smoke of it's cousin plant"

One thing to keep in mind your neighbors may think you are doing other things besides brewing

Click to expand...

Haha, yes I've heard about it, that's why I'm planning on doing this at my mother's farm.. Lots of room for the smell to disappear..
I'm just hoping it doesn't give the beer too much of "that" type of smell.

Check out this thread...the same exact question was asked just 2 hours before you posted this thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/hop-smoked-grain-324251/

bobbrews said:

With spent hops, you obviously have to get all that moisture out before you can ignite them for smoke. Without lighting them, how are you going to get smoke if you're not using wood? And if you burn the hops on their own, the smoke won't last too long at all. Look up "loose tea smoking" and get some ideas.

Edit: Here you go: http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/07/tea-smoked-chicken-wings.html

Click to expand...

Thanks, that will definitely help.

If you are going to hop-smoke your grains, i would soak them as has been mentioned, and then put them in an aluminum foil pouch and poak small holes/slits in the pouch. Place this pouch near or on your fire (charcoal or gas will work) so that it smokes. This should keep your hops from burning up too fast. My girlfriend mentioned that you could also add some soaked hardwood chips to the pouch.

I like the idea in the other thread about smoking the hops with a hardwood flavor.

Threads merged. Instead of double posting, ask a moderator to move the thread for you.

Yuri_Rage said:

Threads merged. Instead of double posting, ask a moderator to move the thread for you.

Click to expand...

Will do, thanks.

Maritime Pacific in Seattle has hop-smoked onion rings that are amazing. Let us know how you smoke them and how it turns out, I've been interested in using hops for smoke. Unfortunately searching for smoking hops gives only drug references...

Would you smoke whole grains or milled? If you're being use it right after you smoke it I could see how milled grains would absorb even more of the hops flavor. What about mashing smoked grains with "hop" water?

Can't you guys just brew some $&@&$ing beer like normal humans?

Here's an idea that will blow your mind. Drink bourbon all day, then piss on some raw barley to start germination. When it's time to halt the progress, kiln it with a spent grain fueled brick oven. Mash in with 100% bong water. Profit!

Bobby_M said:

Can't you guys just brew some $&@&$ing beer like normal humans?

Here's an idea that will blow your mind. Drink bourbon all day, then piss on some raw barley to start germination. When it's time to halt the progress, kiln it with a spent grain fueled brick oven. Mash in with 100% bong water. Profit!

Click to expand...

At which step does the steal underpants come in?

Underpants gnomes!!!

I think my final plan is to hop smoke some milled grain, then to grain smoke some hops.. The test run will be for a 1 gal batch..
I'll be trying this all weekend.
I'll most likely take pictures and document the whole thing then post it in the recipes section...
First step is to build a small smooker..
Any place I can go to find some plans on how to build this device?
It seems like the kind chefs use to smoke with tea leaves is my best bet. I want something I can use often, and will most likely need to try several times before I am successful.