Heavywalker
Well-Known Member
At one point I had asked the homebrew talk community to critique a recipe for a pale ale that I was about to brew. One of the suggestions was to move my 60 minute addition of Chinook hops to First Wort Hops (FWH). I pondered this and thought how, am I supposed to accomplish this as an extract brewer, so I began to research a little about FWH to see if I could come up with a way to use them in an extract recipe.
The idea behind first wort hops is to steep the hops for the 30-45 min that your wort is filling up your boil kettle from your mash tun. This is said to get more (up to 10%) utilization in IBU's from your hops and provide a more well-rounded finish to the beer with more hop flavor. The idea is that the hop oils will be extracted in the 170*F 'ish water and the amount of steeping time allows the oils to oxidize more and prevents the boil off of flavor and aroma that would occur if you added the same hops at 60 minutes.
That is great so my first thought was to add the hops at the same time as my steeping grains to simulate the FWH method in all grain brewing. The problem with this is that while hop oils may be extracted in extremely low gravity wort, or even water, the bitterness and flavor of the extracted oils in the hops take on a decidedly different bitterness and flavor than when compared to extraction with a standard gravity wort, and it is not for the better of the finished beer.
With that in mind there is only one option that is available to the extract brewer when adding first wort hops to hope to get the even bitterness, lack of harshness, and overall well-rounded flavor from first wort hops. The method that I came up with adds some time to the overall brew session but the resulting brews flavor it is well worth the extra time on brew day.
The method:
To start hold back some of your final volume of water and use it to cool your wort later.
Bring water to steeping temps and steep grains as normal. I typically shoot for 155*F for 30 minutes.
Remove grains from boil kettle.
Bring tea to a boil and remove from heat and add half of your extract and stir until well mixed.
Now allow wort to cool to 160-170*F (you can aid it along with a addition of cold water to speed things up if you reserved some water as mentioned) and add your FWH to the kettle.
Allow hops too steep at these temps for approximately 30-45 minutes allowing the hops oils to be extracted and oxidize to prevent boil off.
Once you have steeped your FWH for an appropriate amount of time you can now bring your wort to a boil and brew as normal, adding the remaining extract at between 10 minutes and flameout.
One other thing that I have noticed in my research is that people tend to use bittering hops for FWH. While this will increase the overall IBU’s of the brew it does not add the depth of flavor and aroma that is the goal of FWH’s in beer. For maximum flavor and aroma from FWH the brewer should use a hop that they would use a low Alpha Acid hop that you would typically us for a flavor or aroma addition in the last 15 minutes of the boil, this is what provides the smooth bitterness and well-rounded flavor from FWH’s in beer.
If anyone has any input on this subject please chime in, while I feel like I was diligent in my research of this topic I will admit that I am no expert. Any additional info that can be added, or if there is a need, point out where my thinking is incorrect is appreciated.
The idea behind first wort hops is to steep the hops for the 30-45 min that your wort is filling up your boil kettle from your mash tun. This is said to get more (up to 10%) utilization in IBU's from your hops and provide a more well-rounded finish to the beer with more hop flavor. The idea is that the hop oils will be extracted in the 170*F 'ish water and the amount of steeping time allows the oils to oxidize more and prevents the boil off of flavor and aroma that would occur if you added the same hops at 60 minutes.
That is great so my first thought was to add the hops at the same time as my steeping grains to simulate the FWH method in all grain brewing. The problem with this is that while hop oils may be extracted in extremely low gravity wort, or even water, the bitterness and flavor of the extracted oils in the hops take on a decidedly different bitterness and flavor than when compared to extraction with a standard gravity wort, and it is not for the better of the finished beer.
With that in mind there is only one option that is available to the extract brewer when adding first wort hops to hope to get the even bitterness, lack of harshness, and overall well-rounded flavor from first wort hops. The method that I came up with adds some time to the overall brew session but the resulting brews flavor it is well worth the extra time on brew day.
The method:
To start hold back some of your final volume of water and use it to cool your wort later.
Bring water to steeping temps and steep grains as normal. I typically shoot for 155*F for 30 minutes.
Remove grains from boil kettle.
Bring tea to a boil and remove from heat and add half of your extract and stir until well mixed.
Now allow wort to cool to 160-170*F (you can aid it along with a addition of cold water to speed things up if you reserved some water as mentioned) and add your FWH to the kettle.
Allow hops too steep at these temps for approximately 30-45 minutes allowing the hops oils to be extracted and oxidize to prevent boil off.
Once you have steeped your FWH for an appropriate amount of time you can now bring your wort to a boil and brew as normal, adding the remaining extract at between 10 minutes and flameout.
One other thing that I have noticed in my research is that people tend to use bittering hops for FWH. While this will increase the overall IBU’s of the brew it does not add the depth of flavor and aroma that is the goal of FWH’s in beer. For maximum flavor and aroma from FWH the brewer should use a hop that they would use a low Alpha Acid hop that you would typically us for a flavor or aroma addition in the last 15 minutes of the boil, this is what provides the smooth bitterness and well-rounded flavor from FWH’s in beer.
If anyone has any input on this subject please chime in, while I feel like I was diligent in my research of this topic I will admit that I am no expert. Any additional info that can be added, or if there is a need, point out where my thinking is incorrect is appreciated.
