First wort hopping.

[Ivypunx]

I want to try doing it in a recipe. Any thoughts from your collective expierences

 

[Transamguy77]

I did it on my last brew, it was the caramel amber ale recipe found on this site, it was the smoothest beer I have made. I will be trying it with a few of my pale and IPA recipes.

 

[plinythebadass]

Truthfully...and this can rest heavily with one's own opinion on technique...it not really a useful practice unless your doing a really big IPA. The longer the hops reside in the boil, the more of the delicate (volatile) oils get boiled off resulting in just residual bitterness rather than the floral or fruity aromas that some imperial IPA's have. First wort hopping works great when your doing a really long, say a 75-120 minute boil, on a batch of wort and your looking to impart a large amount of bitterness.

Your going to have a lot of hop additions throughout (with a long boil, for example) most likely with a majority of the early additions contributing to a large percentage of your IBU's (sort of the name of the game with big IPA's, nor entirely, but sort of). So, by adding the hops early-you give the hops more time to impart that notorious bitterness hops are known for thus...higher IBU's.

So to answer your question, it depends on your recipe and what your trying to achieve. The gentlemen about mentioned doing it on an amber ale which is for example unusual but still AWESOME! It's great to experiment and that's the fun with home brewing! Try it and see what happens!

 

[Cadrian]

I did it with my Morebeer Pliny the Elder kit.... It calls for 2 oz of whole cascade hops basically first wort hopped.

Even before it began boiling I had a slick of Hop oil sitting on top of the wort. I decided after seeing that and later tasting the finished product, I will surely be first wort hopping all my big ipas from now on.

 

[Calichusetts]

I do it with all beers except really light ones on the IBU scale. My hop schedule is basically a FWH, then all late hop additions and whirlpool/hop stand.

I'm a hop head so this works well for me. I tend to do 75-90 minute boils. Last one was 1:40 minutes. So its really nice to FWH instead of a 60 minute since I don't have to worry about timing until I have measured several times and have my boil off down pat.

 

[Yooper]

I do it all the time, as I make many IPAs and APAs. It's just easier for me to put the bittering hops in the BK and then start the sparge. I really like the results. I hear it described as a "smoother bitterness", and I'd agree with that.

I normally do it with magnum (most often bittering hops), centennial, and chinook as those are my most common bittering hops for my IPAs.

You get plenty of bitterness (I think Beersmith gives a +10% IBU calc) but it seems not harsh and smoother.

 

[Cottonmouth]

I've done it on an APA an IPA and a DIPA and really like the results on those. Just did it with a guinness clone 3 days ago and like the taste so far. I move my 60 min hop addition to FWH and haven't had had a boilover since I started.

 

[Warthaug]

My experience aligns with Yooper; I add all my bittering hops in most beers now as FWH - the beer is as bitter as if they were added at the beginning of the boil, but the bitterness is "smoother" for lack of a better description. I know some people claim that you get some flavour and aroma as well from this addition - in my experience, which includes a few FWH'd beers where the FWH were the only hops, this isn't the case. In the aformentioned beers, there was little to no hop flavour or aroma - just a nice, smooth bitterness.

Anyone tried it with a lager? I haven't, but I think it may work well.

Bryan

 

[aryoung1980]

Anyone tried it with a lager? I haven't, but I think it may work well.

Bryan

I just brewed up a German Pils this past Saturday with a FWH addition. I'll let you know in 8 weeks.


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[CaribouBrewmasters]

When I brew AG german style beers, I will generally first wort hop. I like using perle in alot of my german styles to bitter, as I like the flavour, always comes across really refined. First wort hopping with a small ammount of perle has always seemed to round out the flavour and really helps to balance it all out.

 

[RonPopeil]

i don't like it. i've tried it and it just doesn't do much for me. i like 60 minute additions because you seem to get a bit more character from your bittering hop. i have an experiment beer on tap where i used nugget only at 60 minutes. you can taste the nugget for sure.