Fresh Hopping?

[mpride1911]

I was reading through a beer magazine I found and saw a picture if a brew master sitting at his bar showing off his "Fresh Hopped" beer.

The practice is basically pouring your beer into a french press and tossing on a handful of hops. Then obviously pressing/straining and drinking.

I looked on Google and found a few places that offer their beers this way.

Has anyone tried it? I left my french press in Afghanistan and haven't had a need to replace it since. I think I want to give this a shot with some of the odd amounts of hops I have left over.

 

[daksin]

What you're describing is something like a "Randall" or "randalizer." Usually beer is forced through a closed container with hops in it on its way to the faucet. This gives you something of a super-dry hop effect. The trick is doing it inline with your draft equipment, so the beer is cold and under pressure the whole time, so you don't get a mess of foam and hop matter everywhere.

Fresh-hopping involves using fresh (not dried) hops immediately after they're harvested. This gives you a distinctive fresh, vegetal, herbal quality you don't get from dried hops. Usually this is done as a special release during the first few days of the hop harvests (many brewers have fresh hops flown in overnight to maximize their potential, as hops lose their quality quickly after being picked).

You could definitely fill your randal with fresh hops though, as this guy may or may not be doing.

 

[mpride1911]

That sounds like a hop rocket. In reading about fresh hopping I read about "wet hopping" which sounds like what you're saying about the fresh picked hops.

 

[high5apparatus]

One time just after the hop giveaway at ABInBev, I took a bunch of hallertau and saaz and threw them into a mini-mash tun and poured in PBR... just to see what it would be like. And it was not bad.

 

[mpride1911]

That looks amazing.

 

[thadius856]

Those poor hops! You animal!!!

Why not just soak them in toilet water on them while you're at it?

Oh. Wait. You did.

 

[high5apparatus]

You call it toilet water, I call it a cheap alternative to using my homebrew in such a scheme.

 

[Fastmetal]

A local bottle shop does table top randalls on Wednesday nights.

https://www.facebook.com/bierstation?ref=ts&fref=ts

The did Blanche de Bruxelles w/ Blueberries & Lavander, Blanche de Bruxelles w/ Blood Orange & Amarillo Hops, Empyrean Fallen Angel w/Smoked Black Tea, and Empyrean Fallen Angel w/ Espresso Beans & Toasted Coconut last night. Pretty awesome. Great bottle shop.