I'm planning on infusing a gallon of my mead with hops. I'm going to use a dry steep method that I know will work I use the process with ipas. The questions I have are how much hops to use? and what type of hops would be tasty in a mead?
Hops infused mead
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Curtis2010
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Are you familiar with braggot?
I made a blended braggot last year using a traditional sweet mead and an IPA that was awesome so I assume these varieties of hops would work out well. Brewed separately and then blended about 50/50. Very nice balance of sweet and hops. The hops schedule used to make the IPA was:
Magnum 1.0 oz, 70 min
Falconers Flight 1.0 oz, 15 min
Cascade 1.0 oz, 5 min
This combination tasted great so I expect that using these for an infusion of some type would too. I tried blending with a commercial beer also and it tasted like crap, but not sure of the hops in that one.
What is the "dry steep" technique you use?
I made a blended braggot last year using a traditional sweet mead and an IPA that was awesome so I assume these varieties of hops would work out well. Brewed separately and then blended about 50/50. Very nice balance of sweet and hops. The hops schedule used to make the IPA was:
Magnum 1.0 oz, 70 min
Falconers Flight 1.0 oz, 15 min
Cascade 1.0 oz, 5 min
This combination tasted great so I expect that using these for an infusion of some type would too. I tried blending with a commercial beer also and it tasted like crap, but not sure of the hops in that one.
What is the "dry steep" technique you use?
1.You will get the best results from pellet hops. Pellet hops allow the best contact with the beer and tend to stay submerged better.
2.Find the best possible hops available. The fresher the better. Your nose knows. If they smell pungent and fresh, they are good to go.
3.After primary fermentation starts, wait for high krausen. As soon as the head of the primary fermentation starts to crash, this is the time to dry hop. We are waiting for the aggressive fermentation and blow off to subside, but still some fermentation to happen while the hops are in contact with the wort. From my personal experience, about 2 – 3 days into fermentation is the optimum window. There is not a hard and fast rule on the time, you just have to watch your beer and wait for the high krausen to crash.
4.Get a sheet of paper from your printer from the middle of the stack. This will be your platform for weighing and adding the hops. Getting a sheet from the middle gives you a nice clean, unadulterated surface on which to work.
5.Place the sheet on your scale and weigh out your hops on top of the sheet. You can fold up the edges of the sheet to help keep everything together. The weight will be totally up to you. For my IPA’s, I put about 6 gallons of wort into the fermenter and dry hop with about 2.5 – 3 oz of Centennial (my personal favorite). Whatever hop you choose, the aroma you smell from the hops is what you are going to end up with in your beer. Pick your variety carefully. Experiment with amounts and varieties to find out which works best for you.
6.With the hops on the sheet, roll the sheet into a cone and use the small end of the cone to direct the hops into the primary fermenter.
7.When all of the hops are added, install an air lock on your fermenter. When I ferment, I put a blow off tube on every beer until I am sure that blow off is done. I typically time my dry hop additions with removing the blow off tube and replacing it with an air lock.
8.Swirl the fermenter to distribute the hops.
9 .Abut twice a day, swirl the fermenter to mix up the hops and help submerge them. You will find that some sink to the bottom but the bulk of them gather in a layer at the top. The swirling breaks up the layer and increases contact with the wort. You should note that the beer continues to ferment.
10. After 3 full days, no more, no less, rack the beer into a secondary fermenter. If you added the hops at 6 PM on Tuesday, rack your beer at 6 PM on Friday. Three days of dry hopping is plenty, and more than this might give flavors that you don’t want. Don’t swirl the hops before you rack, you want to be able to leave behind the vast majority of them. Rack carefully,
11.Once the beer is racked, give it a week or so to settle and finish any residual fermentation.
12.At this point you can rack again to help clarify, or you can keg or bottle accordingly. I typically keg my beer after about a week to 10 days in the secondary.
I cant remember where i got this from to give credit where its due but it works wonders. I like the hops schedule you linked I am going to try to use a variation of it to infuse my mead ill let you know how it goes.
2.Find the best possible hops available. The fresher the better. Your nose knows. If they smell pungent and fresh, they are good to go.
3.After primary fermentation starts, wait for high krausen. As soon as the head of the primary fermentation starts to crash, this is the time to dry hop. We are waiting for the aggressive fermentation and blow off to subside, but still some fermentation to happen while the hops are in contact with the wort. From my personal experience, about 2 – 3 days into fermentation is the optimum window. There is not a hard and fast rule on the time, you just have to watch your beer and wait for the high krausen to crash.
4.Get a sheet of paper from your printer from the middle of the stack. This will be your platform for weighing and adding the hops. Getting a sheet from the middle gives you a nice clean, unadulterated surface on which to work.
5.Place the sheet on your scale and weigh out your hops on top of the sheet. You can fold up the edges of the sheet to help keep everything together. The weight will be totally up to you. For my IPA’s, I put about 6 gallons of wort into the fermenter and dry hop with about 2.5 – 3 oz of Centennial (my personal favorite). Whatever hop you choose, the aroma you smell from the hops is what you are going to end up with in your beer. Pick your variety carefully. Experiment with amounts and varieties to find out which works best for you.
6.With the hops on the sheet, roll the sheet into a cone and use the small end of the cone to direct the hops into the primary fermenter.
7.When all of the hops are added, install an air lock on your fermenter. When I ferment, I put a blow off tube on every beer until I am sure that blow off is done. I typically time my dry hop additions with removing the blow off tube and replacing it with an air lock.
8.Swirl the fermenter to distribute the hops.
9 .Abut twice a day, swirl the fermenter to mix up the hops and help submerge them. You will find that some sink to the bottom but the bulk of them gather in a layer at the top. The swirling breaks up the layer and increases contact with the wort. You should note that the beer continues to ferment.
10. After 3 full days, no more, no less, rack the beer into a secondary fermenter. If you added the hops at 6 PM on Tuesday, rack your beer at 6 PM on Friday. Three days of dry hopping is plenty, and more than this might give flavors that you don’t want. Don’t swirl the hops before you rack, you want to be able to leave behind the vast majority of them. Rack carefully,
11.Once the beer is racked, give it a week or so to settle and finish any residual fermentation.
12.At this point you can rack again to help clarify, or you can keg or bottle accordingly. I typically keg my beer after about a week to 10 days in the secondary.
I cant remember where i got this from to give credit where its due but it works wonders. I like the hops schedule you linked I am going to try to use a variation of it to infuse my mead ill let you know how it goes.
Curtis2010
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Oh OK, just a terminology difference -- I would just call that "dry hopping". I expect dry hopping would work just fine for a mead, but of course you won't get much hops bitterness without the boil.
Be sure and post how it turns out.
Be sure and post how it turns out.
Definatly. Yea I cant boil at this point because I would hurt the alcohol and the delicate aromas from the honey. I wonder if I could boil the hops with water and then add or something... normally would you just do the hops at beginning before fermentation? Going to dry hips this batch. Ill let ya know how it goes.
Curtis2010
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Ty I'll look that up now. So I just went to my local brew store they didn't have all of the hops listed above so we smelled a bunch of hops and I'm going with citra hops. Out has a great aroma. Going to dry hops it today. Ill keep you posted
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