Mash Hopping
Mash hopping is a much different beast than FWHing. First off, it is for partial mash and all-grain brewers only. Second, iso-alpha acid conversion does not take place at an appreciable level at mash temperatures, so alpha acids do not undergo the isomerization reaction. The oils that are extracted from the hops will most all be driven off during the boil, so why would anyone give mash hopping a second look? Well there may actually be a reason to take a look down this worm hole for a very specific purpose.
Mash hopping is simply adding a hop charge to the mash. I have always used whole leaf hops when mash hopping since it will aid in grain bed filtration in a manner somewhat akin to adding rice hulls. Mix the hops in at the beginning of the mash and do not change anything else about the mash.
So if the alpha acids are not going to convert and say 98% of them are left in the mash tun and the oils will be driven off in the boil, why use it? Well what if you're planning on boiling the mash and what if the only time you're going to boil on that given brew day is during the mash? Two fairly well documented mashing techniques may come to mind; decoction and turbid mashing when answering the first question. The second question is found again by looking at what was done in the past.
Traditionally brewers have always boiled their wort after lautering for a minimum of 60 minutes. If Pilsner malt is used, that boil time is generally increased to at least 90 minutes to offset the increased levels of S-methyl methionine (SMM) (the dimethyl sulfide/DMS pre-cursor molecule) found in this lightly kilned base malt. But in this brewing renaissance everything can be questioned and the requirement of boiling is one of them. A scan through the history books found brewers in the past who have tried this no-boil technique.
So let me explain the no-boil technique, then I can get into why mash hopping is perfect for this technique. I first learned about no-boil beers from reading Michael Tonsmeire's brewing blog "The Mad Fermentationist." In a post from 2008 he talks about reading Eric Warner's book titled German Wheat Beer. Mr Warner explains that traditionally a Berliner Weisse beer had the wort go directly from the lauter tun to the coolship, bypassing the kettle and boil process entirely. Tonsmeire took this concept and decided to apply it to his next Berliner weisse. There is one glaring problem with this, however: Berliner weisse uses a lot of Pilsner malt. Wouldn't DMS be a huge problem with the finished beer? Well what Mr. Tonsmeire and the ensuing wave of no-boil experimenters found was that DMS doesn't seem to be a major problem with these beers. Does the bacteria possibly mask the low levels of DMS that would be found in a no-boil beer or could the lack of a boil somehow prevents DMS or could it be that the DMS is oxidized by the acids produced by the bacteria or simply scrubbed out during the fermentation process? Once again, I could not find anything but anecdotal evidence that supports that no-boil beers will result in beers without the cooked cabbage like aromas that are associated with DMS. Needless to say, more intensive studies into this matter could result in some conclusive evidence as to why this may be the case by measuring DMS levels in the finished wort of a no-boil beer and the DMS levels post-fermentation.
Now to turn this back into mash hopping, what has evolved is a no-boil beer where a brewer can get their very small quantities of iso-alpha acids desired for a beer like a Berliner weisse from a mash that has been hopped, then isomerization occurs during the ensuing decoction process depending on how much mash you are looking to pull for the decoction. So for argument's sake you have added hops in the entire mash and decide to pull half of the mash for decoction, then for calculation purposes simply consider that half of the hops are being boiled for the duration of the decoction boiling. Or you can save some money on hops by simply adding the hops directly to the pulled decoction. With a beer like a no-boil Berliner weisse whole leaf hops will now perform two functions, assist in grain bed filtration and provide the low levels of iso-alpha acids. Where else could you use this technique? Lambic-styled beers, gose and other sour beers seem like a good fit for mash hopping if boiling is not truly required in sour beers.
Mash Hop Recipe
Nicht-boil Berliner
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.032 FG = 1.005 IBU = 5 SRM = 3 ABV = 3.5%
This recipe is inspired by Michael Tonsmeire's modern take on the no-boil method. Make sure to keep your IBUs extremely low (<5 IBUs) to insure that the Lactobacillus will not be inhibited.
Ingredients
4 lbs. (1.8 kg) Pilsner malt
2.5 lbs. (1.13 kg) wheat malt
Rice hulls (optional)
4.5 AAU Hallertau Mittelfrüh hops (mash hop) (1 oz./28 g at 4.5% alpha acid)
Wyeast 5335 (Lactobacillus) or White Labs WLP677 (Lactobacillus Bacteria)
Wyeast 1007 (German Ale) or White Labs WLP036 (Dusseldorf Alt) yeast
Priming sugar (if bottling)
Step by Step
One week prior to brew day, make a 1 qt. (1 L) starter with the Lactobacillus. Do not place the starter on a stir plate but try to get the starter in a spot near your house boiler where temperatures would be above room temperature or a similar location with elevated temperatures. This should give the Lacto a jump start in order to get a nicely soured beer. If you are able to find one of the Berliner weisse yeast blends, you can alternatively pick up Wyeast 3191 (Berliner Weisse Blend) or White Labs WLP630 (Berliner Weisse Blend) or East Coast Yeast ECY06 (Berliner Blend) yeast which would blend one or more strains of Lactobacillus bacteria as well as a German ale yeast plus sometimes a Brettanomyces yeast as well.
This is a decoction mash. Dough-in with 4 qts. (3.8 L) water, mix the crushed grains and hops to achieve a mash temperature of 95 °F (35 °C). Rest for 10 minutes then raise the grain bed to 135 °F (57 °C) with the addition of boiling water. Let rest for 10 minutes then pull (decoct) half the grains (thick mash with little wort) and boil the grains for 20 minutes stirring often to avoid scorching them. Return the decocted portion back to the main mash to help raise the temperature up to saccharification temperatures to 152 °F (67 °C) for saccharification conversion. Rest at this temperature for 45 minutes. At this point you can pull a second decoction, which would require you to cut down on your mash hop quantities to half an ounce (14 g) or you can simply raise your mash up to 170 °F (77 °C) by using a recirculating heat method or by infusing boiling water to the mash. If you are using rice hulls add them prior to starting your lauter. Rest for 15 minutes and begin lauter phase. Once you start running off, send the wort directly into the wort chiller or fermenter. If you are fly sparging, be wary of the specific gravity or more specifically the pH of your run-off. If the pH of your grain bed rises above 6, your brew is susceptible to tannin extraction. One solution is to acidify your sparge water to pH 6 with the addition of phosphoric or lactic acid.
Collect 5 gallons (19 L) of wort. If the wort is not chilled, place wort in a cool spot or fridge to get it down to about 110 °F (43 °C) and pitch the pure Lactobacillus. Make sure that you have raised the temperature of the Lacto starter up to about this temperature as well since you don't want to shock the bacteria. After about 12 hours when the temperature of the wort has cooled to yeast fermentation temperature of 65 °F (18 °C), pitch the ale yeast and hold at this temperature for duration of primary fermentation. Do not aerate the wort.
After primary fermentation is complete, you can raise the temperature of the wort up to around 80 °F (27 °C) to let the souring process occur more rapidly. One to three months of aging would be a minimal recommended time period to properly sour this beer.
source: http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2958-pre-boil-hopping
Mash hopping is a much different beast than FWHing. First off, it is for partial mash and all-grain brewers only. Second, iso-alpha acid conversion does not take place at an appreciable level at mash temperatures, so alpha acids do not undergo the isomerization reaction. The oils that are extracted from the hops will most all be driven off during the boil, so why would anyone give mash hopping a second look? Well there may actually be a reason to take a look down this worm hole for a very specific purpose.
Mash hopping is simply adding a hop charge to the mash. I have always used whole leaf hops when mash hopping since it will aid in grain bed filtration in a manner somewhat akin to adding rice hulls. Mix the hops in at the beginning of the mash and do not change anything else about the mash.
So if the alpha acids are not going to convert and say 98% of them are left in the mash tun and the oils will be driven off in the boil, why use it? Well what if you're planning on boiling the mash and what if the only time you're going to boil on that given brew day is during the mash? Two fairly well documented mashing techniques may come to mind; decoction and turbid mashing when answering the first question. The second question is found again by looking at what was done in the past.
Traditionally brewers have always boiled their wort after lautering for a minimum of 60 minutes. If Pilsner malt is used, that boil time is generally increased to at least 90 minutes to offset the increased levels of S-methyl methionine (SMM) (the dimethyl sulfide/DMS pre-cursor molecule) found in this lightly kilned base malt. But in this brewing renaissance everything can be questioned and the requirement of boiling is one of them. A scan through the history books found brewers in the past who have tried this no-boil technique.
So let me explain the no-boil technique, then I can get into why mash hopping is perfect for this technique. I first learned about no-boil beers from reading Michael Tonsmeire's brewing blog "The Mad Fermentationist." In a post from 2008 he talks about reading Eric Warner's book titled German Wheat Beer. Mr Warner explains that traditionally a Berliner Weisse beer had the wort go directly from the lauter tun to the coolship, bypassing the kettle and boil process entirely. Tonsmeire took this concept and decided to apply it to his next Berliner weisse. There is one glaring problem with this, however: Berliner weisse uses a lot of Pilsner malt. Wouldn't DMS be a huge problem with the finished beer? Well what Mr. Tonsmeire and the ensuing wave of no-boil experimenters found was that DMS doesn't seem to be a major problem with these beers. Does the bacteria possibly mask the low levels of DMS that would be found in a no-boil beer or could the lack of a boil somehow prevents DMS or could it be that the DMS is oxidized by the acids produced by the bacteria or simply scrubbed out during the fermentation process? Once again, I could not find anything but anecdotal evidence that supports that no-boil beers will result in beers without the cooked cabbage like aromas that are associated with DMS. Needless to say, more intensive studies into this matter could result in some conclusive evidence as to why this may be the case by measuring DMS levels in the finished wort of a no-boil beer and the DMS levels post-fermentation.
Now to turn this back into mash hopping, what has evolved is a no-boil beer where a brewer can get their very small quantities of iso-alpha acids desired for a beer like a Berliner weisse from a mash that has been hopped, then isomerization occurs during the ensuing decoction process depending on how much mash you are looking to pull for the decoction. So for argument's sake you have added hops in the entire mash and decide to pull half of the mash for decoction, then for calculation purposes simply consider that half of the hops are being boiled for the duration of the decoction boiling. Or you can save some money on hops by simply adding the hops directly to the pulled decoction. With a beer like a no-boil Berliner weisse whole leaf hops will now perform two functions, assist in grain bed filtration and provide the low levels of iso-alpha acids. Where else could you use this technique? Lambic-styled beers, gose and other sour beers seem like a good fit for mash hopping if boiling is not truly required in sour beers.
Mash Hop Recipe
Nicht-boil Berliner
(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.032 FG = 1.005 IBU = 5 SRM = 3 ABV = 3.5%
This recipe is inspired by Michael Tonsmeire's modern take on the no-boil method. Make sure to keep your IBUs extremely low (<5 IBUs) to insure that the Lactobacillus will not be inhibited.
Ingredients
4 lbs. (1.8 kg) Pilsner malt
2.5 lbs. (1.13 kg) wheat malt
Rice hulls (optional)
4.5 AAU Hallertau Mittelfrüh hops (mash hop) (1 oz./28 g at 4.5% alpha acid)
Wyeast 5335 (Lactobacillus) or White Labs WLP677 (Lactobacillus Bacteria)
Wyeast 1007 (German Ale) or White Labs WLP036 (Dusseldorf Alt) yeast
Priming sugar (if bottling)
Step by Step
One week prior to brew day, make a 1 qt. (1 L) starter with the Lactobacillus. Do not place the starter on a stir plate but try to get the starter in a spot near your house boiler where temperatures would be above room temperature or a similar location with elevated temperatures. This should give the Lacto a jump start in order to get a nicely soured beer. If you are able to find one of the Berliner weisse yeast blends, you can alternatively pick up Wyeast 3191 (Berliner Weisse Blend) or White Labs WLP630 (Berliner Weisse Blend) or East Coast Yeast ECY06 (Berliner Blend) yeast which would blend one or more strains of Lactobacillus bacteria as well as a German ale yeast plus sometimes a Brettanomyces yeast as well.
This is a decoction mash. Dough-in with 4 qts. (3.8 L) water, mix the crushed grains and hops to achieve a mash temperature of 95 °F (35 °C). Rest for 10 minutes then raise the grain bed to 135 °F (57 °C) with the addition of boiling water. Let rest for 10 minutes then pull (decoct) half the grains (thick mash with little wort) and boil the grains for 20 minutes stirring often to avoid scorching them. Return the decocted portion back to the main mash to help raise the temperature up to saccharification temperatures to 152 °F (67 °C) for saccharification conversion. Rest at this temperature for 45 minutes. At this point you can pull a second decoction, which would require you to cut down on your mash hop quantities to half an ounce (14 g) or you can simply raise your mash up to 170 °F (77 °C) by using a recirculating heat method or by infusing boiling water to the mash. If you are using rice hulls add them prior to starting your lauter. Rest for 15 minutes and begin lauter phase. Once you start running off, send the wort directly into the wort chiller or fermenter. If you are fly sparging, be wary of the specific gravity or more specifically the pH of your run-off. If the pH of your grain bed rises above 6, your brew is susceptible to tannin extraction. One solution is to acidify your sparge water to pH 6 with the addition of phosphoric or lactic acid.
Collect 5 gallons (19 L) of wort. If the wort is not chilled, place wort in a cool spot or fridge to get it down to about 110 °F (43 °C) and pitch the pure Lactobacillus. Make sure that you have raised the temperature of the Lacto starter up to about this temperature as well since you don't want to shock the bacteria. After about 12 hours when the temperature of the wort has cooled to yeast fermentation temperature of 65 °F (18 °C), pitch the ale yeast and hold at this temperature for duration of primary fermentation. Do not aerate the wort.
After primary fermentation is complete, you can raise the temperature of the wort up to around 80 °F (27 °C) to let the souring process occur more rapidly. One to three months of aging would be a minimal recommended time period to properly sour this beer.
source: http://byo.com/stories/issue/item/2958-pre-boil-hopping
