Boiling hops in sparge water for better utilization?

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I am just getting into AG brewing and building a e-keggle setup.

I have been reading about hop utilization being lower in high OG beer and also where people are concerned about utilization issues using the hop sock. I came up with an idea to take a few gallons of the second sparge run-off and use that to boil the hops in the hop sock in a second stove top pot to get the most of my hops in high OG beers.

Anyone do this? Besides another pot to wash, are there any disadvantages to this?
 
When doing partial boil/PM, I have, on occasion, pre-boiled my top-off water with part of the bittering hops. Same basic idea.
 
Hop utilization requires more than just water. There have to be some sugars or starches or something.;)

I just remember reading that somewhere.
 
Hop utilization requires more than just water. There have to be some sugars or starches or something.;)

I just remember reading that somewhere.

I missed that chapter... Actually I remember something along those lines but have read too much to remember it all. But I guess I should have clarified I meant the sparge runoffs. So it will be wort, just weak wort. You do bring up a good point though can it be too weak to bring on the utilization?
 
You would also have to calculate the gravity and IBU's separately and then calculate a dilution to determine the final potential.

A lot of work to avoid tossing in another half ounce of hops.
 
You would also have to calculate the gravity and IBU's separately and then calculate a dilution to determine the final potential.

A lot of work to avoid tossing in another half ounce of hops.

Your probably right in that it is only a fraction of an ounce of hops saved. But do i really need to do all that math? Can't i just boil the hops in a sock in 2 gallons of second sarge run-off, which would be 1.020 gravity (just a guess). Add that to the last 5 minutes of boil to the big BK, then factor in utilzation for gallons at 1.020 in a 10 gallon batch?

I am using Beersmith. Does it factor in OG and utilization when calculating the IBUs? If so then I would have to do the math.
 
why dont you just boil longer for more utilization

I think I have read that utilization does not go up much after 60 minutes. But I also said I remember reading that you need wort to utilize hops, so that shows how susceptible I am to the power of suggestion. I really need to stop believing everything I read on the internet.

At first I was just postulating something I remembered people saying they don't like the hop sock because of utilization concerns. I have only been using it a while but the convenience of it is worth the cost of a half ounce of hops. However when reading about the drop in utilization with increased OG, I was concerned about the combined affect.

Looking at the first link from Gilaminimum, thanks GM great info there, here is what I came up with.
  • 60 minutes vs 120 minute boil yeilds 10% increase in utilization
  • utilization drops starts to be significant above 1.050 compared to 1.030
  • OG 1.060 yields 75% less than 1.030
  • OG 1.10 yields 50% of 1.030

I guess I am being anal as I am about to brew Piney the Elder Clone and want to make sure I can taste all the hops.:D
 
It's all about utilization and what effects it. You will have to discern the eficay of boiling in water alone yourself because no-one does this. Be it scientifically disproven or infeasible for the process I would suspect that if boiling hops in pure water results in a signifigant extraction efficiency boost then the massive brewers like A-B would employ the technique exclusively and there would be large articles on the technique.

And yet, there is nothing. I'd doubt that it hadn't been studied if even for the process of extraction for "liquid hops" alone. Even then, they use an alcohol base to maximize extraction.
 
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