How do YOU use Wet Hops?

Just curious what people do with fresh hops when they're brewing. I'm going to be getting some fresh Citra soon and am planning to use them during the flavor and aroma intervals of my boil. Also planning on using some for first wort hopping.

Does anyone wet hop in the secondary? I feel like fresh hops just wouldn't last long enough to be used in a secondary (seeing as I'm getting them on brew day).

Does anyone wet hop during primary? I haven't seen many (if any) people talk about doing this. I assume it's a bad idea, but I guess I don't really know!

I have done one ALL wet hop ale (pure Chinook) which is Brilliant, although more like a pale ale that the IPA I was aiming for

I have done one which I bittered with pellets and did my 10 and 1 minute addition with wet cascade (bottled saturday.. will be cracking the first tester friday)

Tomorrow I will be doing another fully wet fully home grown with Chinook for bittering and cascade for aroma and taste..

Last week I did an all wet hop double IPA and an all wet hop black IPA. I did end up dry hopping the Black IPA though because the malt was overpowering the hop aroma.

Cheers,
Michael J. Pelechaty

Brew TV by Northern Brewer did a great segment on this last fall, definitely worth watching.

They're most frequently added throughout the end of the boil & whirlpool. Wet Hops are all about the aroma and oils that are otherwise lost in the drying process. So add in handfuls during the last 10 mins of the boil, and during chilling. Once I'm below 160 or so I'll slow the chiller down, add a whole bunch and let them steep for 30 mins. It's awesome, it's like resin-soup into the fermenter.

They can be used for bittering, it's just kind of a waste since you'll lose all the fresh hop oils anyway. Plus, with the 5:1 wet to dry ratio, you'd need a ton to bitter your beer.

As for adding post fermentation, I think the issue there is freshness. Unless you get 2 shipments, you're looking at 5-10 day old wet hops. Plus, with the 5:1 ratio, you need to add a TON of them, so absorption might be an issue. I've seen some reports of grassy/vegetal flavors from adding to secondary, but I'm undecided on that point. I just dry hopped mine with the same variety and it turned out awesome.

I had a similar problem as the OP, so on my brew day I vacuum sealed and froze the portion of hops for my wet hopping. When fermentation was complete and it was time to transfer, I purged a corny keg with CO2, dropped in the frozen hops, purged again and transferred my beer on top of the hops, and purged again. After 5-8 days I'll transfer to another corny. I have one of those dip tube screens in the wet hopping keg, which seems to work well with the whole hops.

Thanks guys, that helps a ton.

I think I'm actually going to use most of mine during a first wort hop addition, none during the flavoring phase and what's left during aroma. I did some more reading on FWH and most people seemed to say that it replaces a flavor addition of hops...almost like, "why first wort hop if you're also going to boil some hops at the 15-10 minute mark?" It'd overlap the different flavor profile from FWH.

My recipe is going to use 2-row with a small amount of crystal 10L and 20L. It'll use the following schedule:

10oz Citra Wet FWH
1.5oz (30AAU) Warrior Dry Hops 60 minutes (bittering)
6 oz Citra Wet 0 minutes
0.5 oz (10AAU) Warrior Dry Hops 0 minutes

Dry hop with 1 oz (20AAU) Warrior Dry Leaf 1 week.

Warrior is going to give it a kick in the pants and turn it into an IPA for sure. The Wet Citra is going to (hopefully) remind me of spring, the flowers and make me forget all about the pending winter. It'll also add a refreshing citrus flavor (again hopefully).

I would strongly encourage you not to use 10oz of wet citra as FWH. Remember, it still has to endure 60 minutes of boiling. It may give you flavor, but I think you'll lose almost all of the fresh-hop character. Plus you'll be loading up on the IBUs.

TyTanium said:

I would strongly encourage you not to use 10oz of wet citra as FWH. Remember, it still has to endure 60 minutes of boiling. It may give you flavor, but I think you'll lose almost all of the fresh-hop character. Plus you'll be loading up on the IBUs.

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My reading led me to believe that the 60 minutes of boiling wouldn't really affect hops added during FWH. I thought FWH was supposed to oxidize the flavor and aroma compounds, retaining their characteristics during the boil. Rule of thumb is that it'd contribute about as many IBUs as a 20-30 minute boil. I hadn't considered if it'd ruin the fresh-hop character though, maybe the green flavors don't turn into soluble compounds like dry hops and just boil off. Any proof or some reading I can do on this?

I'll give it some thought and maybe reserve about 5-6 ounces for a 10-15 minute boil.

sidepart said:

Thanks guys, that helps a ton.

I think I'm actually going to use most of mine during a first wort hop addition, none during the flavoring phase and what's left during aroma. I did some more reading on FWH and most people seemed to say that it replaces a flavor addition of hops...almost like, "why first wort hop if you're also going to boil some hops at the 15-10 minute mark?" It'd overlap the different flavor profile from FWH.

My recipe is going to use 2-row with a small amount of crystal 10L and 20L. It'll use the following schedule:

10oz Citra Wet FWH
1.5oz (30AAU) Warrior Dry Hops 60 minutes (bittering)
6 oz Citra Wet 0 minutes
0.5 oz (10AAU) Warrior Dry Hops 0 minutes

Dry hop with 1 oz (20AAU) Warrior Dry Leaf 1 week.

Warrior is going to give it a kick in the pants and turn it into an IPA for sure. The Wet Citra is going to (hopefully) remind me of spring, the flowers and make me forget all about the pending winter. It'll also add a refreshing citrus flavor (again hopefully).

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how did you get wet citra?

I've used them for all adds, 'dry' hopping and even in a randall. Didn't work in the randall.

I used mine for the first time last night. I used some dried hops for bittering at the 60 mark, and used as much wet cascades as i could fit in my kettle within the last 15 minutes. Then i chilled for a bit and let it stew for an hour. The whole garage still smells like hops.

matt2778 said:

how did you get wet citra?

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Midwest Supplies. They had a preorder back in July. They're coming in, in a few days.

Just did a simcoe Amarillo wet hop ipa. I didn't know not too use them at 60 min. Added them continuously through the 60 min boil. Also dry/wet hoped in secondary. Just dumped them in and purged head space with co2. Finally tasting the beer, aroma is fantastic, but flavor is all grass. Oh well, still good. Next time though I will do pellets till 20 min or less. But dry/wet hoping worked. And it was 1 pound each for a 5 gallon batch.

I did a 6 oz FWH and then put in 26 more ounces between 15 min and flamout.

It turned out great!

Next year I will bitter with .5 ounce magnum pellets and thrown all 32 oz in the last 15 min.

These were a combo of homegrown wet cascade, centennial, chinook and zues.

TyTanium said:

Plus, with the 5:1 ratio, you need to add a TON of them, so absorption might be an issue.

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You shouldn't need any more actual hops to get the same effect, but you need more wet hops by weight. Since the hops are full of water, they weigh more, which means you need more ounces of hops to get the same amount of hop material (since some of the total ounces are water ounces), hence 5:1. You shouldn't have any more absorption from 5 oz. wet hops than from 1 oz dry hops, right? Or am I missing something else?

tennesseean_87 said:

You shouldn't have any more absorption from 5 oz. wet hops than from 1 oz dry hops, right? Or am I missing something else?

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i would think that you'd get more absorption from the dry hops, since not only is wort being retained between the leaves/bracts/etc but the plant material itself is retaining wort. in other words, the dried hops need to be re-hydrated - something that he wet hops won't be going. then again, i suspect the amount of wort involved in the rehydration is negligible.