Do you use vodka in your hop tea?

[letsbrew]

Are you using vodka for making a hop tea with a french press? can you tell me your results?

 

[Wynne-R]

Yes I do. When brewing pales I make a hop tea addition pre-bottling with 30mL vodka, I mL 85% phosphoric acid, 14g leaf hops and about ½ liter 75C water. I let it cool to room temperature and then add it to the priming sugar.

It’s like a dry hop, but it’s immediate and about 4 times as efficient.

I’ll probably get jumped on by people that have never tried it, but it works for me.

Edit: if you try this, don't forget always add acid to water, never the other way around. If you're not comfortable handling strong acids, change the recipe to 9 ml 10% phosphoric or lactic. Rinse your hands with cold water after handling any acid.

 

[letsbrew]

nice do you use acid to prevent oxidation ? or just for getting more extraction from the hops oil?

Yes I do. When brewing pales I make a hop tea addition pre-bottling with 30mL vodka, I mL 85% phosphoric acid, 14g leaf hops and about ½ liter 75C water. I let it cool to room temperature and then add it to the priming sugar.

It’s like a dry hop, but it’s immediate and about 4 times as efficient.

I’ll probably get jumped on by people that have never tried it, but it works for me.

Edit: if you try this, don't forget always add acid to water, never the other way around. If you're not comfortable handling strong acids, change the recipe to 9 ml 10% phosphoric or lactic. Rinse your hands with cold water after handling any acid.

 

[Wynne-R]

Come to think of it, that’s way too much acid. You could probably get away with .1 mL, depending on your water. You want the pH to be low enough, probably around 5.0 to avoid extracting tannin bitterness and grassy flavors. I just didn’t bother measuring such a small volume. Better too low than too high.

I just tried it with 10 drops of lemon juice in 250 mL of water and got a pH of 5.2. Probably a slicker way to do it. I’ll try that next time, 1 mL of lemon juice. The amount is not critical, you just want enough to counter the alkalinity of the water.

 

[letsbrew]

i think the reason for acidifying is to emulate the same beers ph i guess, i have food grade citric acid that i can use it, do you use the same ratio as you normally do with dry hopping?

 

[NHMikeT]

Wynne-R, I like the sound of your method and am hoping to do something like this at bottling for the double IPA I'm fermenting right now. I just can't seem to get the intensity I want from the dry-hop (even with 4oz). Three questions:

1) Have you done this with pellet hops?

2) Do you mix a normal 8-16 oz for priming sugar and combine that with 16 oz hop tea?

3) If you're using RO water, do you worry about the acid addition?

Thanks for any info.

MT

 

[Wynne-R]

1) Have you done this with pellet hops?
No

2) Do you mix a normal 8-16 oz for priming sugar and combine that with 16 oz hop tea?
I use 110g of sucrose in 17-18L and the tea is 14g in 500mL

3) If you're using RO water, do you worry about the acid addition?
Tapwater, 100ppm alkalinity