Hop tea gyle

On pg 160 of New Brewing Lager Beer, Noonan writes:

A hop extract can be made by steeping aroma hops for ten minutes or more at pH 5.5 or above in four fluid ounces of wort per each half ounce of hops. An extract is usually added post-primary, so that none of it is lost in the hop and trub residue, and the aroma is not scrubbed out during primary fermentation. [...] Overall, aroma from an extract is milder, spicier, and less grassy/weedy than that derived by dry-hopping.

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This sounds great, right? Nice aromas and you don't have to rack it off or pull out a hop sack! And being fermentable, it can clean up acetaldehyde and diacetyl. It's Reinheitsgebot and won't dilute the beer.

I totally want to do this with my upcoming 2-row/Liberty SMaSH. But the book doesn't detail where or when to add it, just post-primary. I want to naturally carbonate in the keg, so I'll probably lager the beer for a few weeks, then add the tea and keep it at (winter) room temp for a couple more. Any glaring flaws with this plan?

There is a great podcast on making hop tea on basic brewing radio. Gerard Lemmens of Brewers Supply Group goes into detail on how to do it.

September 8, 2005 - Gerard Lemmens on Using Hops

September 1, 2005 - Talking Hops with Gerard Lemmens

I also included the hop talk, which is well worth listening to as well.

Is this Randallizing with cold wort instead of hot water?

HairyDogBrewing said:

Is this Randallizing with cold wort instead of hot water?

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AFAIK, Randalls use cold beer.

I used hot wort. I mashed 1lb of 2-row, boiled it with 0.1oz Liberty for 15min, cooled it to about 160F, then poured it into my French press with 0.9oz Liberty and let it steep about ten minutes. Then I pressed it, cooled it, added about a teaspoon of yeast from the main batch, let it sit overnight until it just started fermenting, and added to the main batch in the keg. The keg was conditioned for two weeks in the low 60s.

The hop character was astounding when the beer was young. Very bright, fruity, lemony. It faded quickly, unfortunately, even though I kept the beer cold. By three months, the beer was rather dull. There was about a two week window where it had lagered long enough and the hop presence hadn't yet escaped.

The kraeusen batch was about 900ml of 1.060 OG. It carbonated perfectly with no venting or additional gas.:rockin:

Randallizing is running beer (final product) through dry hops (in a Randall).

Thanks for reminding me of this technech I will do some experimentation.
I suppose I should document and share. I make an APA called AlphaAle I brew repeatedly in 15 gallon batches. The last batch I split into 3 5 gallon carboys and dry hopped seperatly with; cascade, Willemette, and Cluster to compare.


Hey and for the record your avatar disturbs me... Not sure why.

ChristianAlpha-RuBrew said:

Hey and for the record your avatar disturbs me... Not sure why.

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Probably the High Life...

Yea, I covered each half of the picture, your right it's the 40 of MHL.

How else would you know how much of a gangsta I am?

944play said:

How else would you know how much of a gangsta I am?

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Word up G.:rockin: