FWH only in Scottish Ales?

[thisjrp4]

In Ray Daniels Designing Great Beers he quotes a brewing book from the mid 1800's saying that most Edinburgh brewers "put in the whole of the hops at the time when the wort is pumped into the copper." First Wort Hopping, right? Wouldnt this require much more hops to achieve the bitterness than a 60 minute addition, and wouldn't the large amount of hops give a lot of flavor and aroma not typical of the style?

I have only FWH'd a few times and I calculated the bitterness as a 20 minute addition and I thought it did give a nice flavor and aroma.

I'm planning on making a Scottish ale and I may try FWH'ing only, but is it just going to require too much hops and put the flavor and aroma out of style?

 

[kanzimonson]

I'm still not sold on FWH, but I think you're mixing some of the ideas about it that I read on the forums. You apparently get the flavor of a 20 min addition, but your bitterness is equal to or possibly greater than adding the hops at the beginning of the boil.

 

[Yooper]

In my experience, FWH gives just as much bitterness as a 60 minute addition, possibly more, since the hops are boiled the whole time. It's a smoother, more flavorful bitterness, though, and some have compared it flavor-wise to a 20 minute addition. Since the hops are boiled for 60-90 minutes, depending on boil length, I calculate the IBUs for that.

 

[thisjrp4]

Thanks. There is a good bit of conflicting info out there on FWH'ing. I have read that bitterness is equal to a 20 minute addition and when I tried it I did FWH in addition to my bittering hops and the beer wasn't "super" bitter.

 

[Yooper]

Thanks. There is a good bit of conflicting info out there on FWH'ing. I have read that bitterness is equal to a 20 minute addition and when I tried it I did FWH in addition to my bittering hops and the beer wasn't "super" bitter.

My experience is opposite- I use it with many of my APAs and get a strong but smooth bitterness. Maybe it's the AAUs of the hops? I've done it with centennial, for example, or warrior hops, and using a low AAU hop variety, like a noble hop would probably make a big difference!

 

[Bob]

I think there's a lot of conflicting information out there because there's a lot of bunk out there. It is Teh Intarwebz, after all.

FWH tends to be perceived as a lower bitterness level than a "normally" hopped beer, as the others pointed out. The numbers work out differently.

Here is an excellent scientific writeup on FWH vs "normally" hopped beers. You'll note the FWH beers had 5-10% higher BUs than the reference beer.

Have fun!

Bob

 

[MVKTR2]

I echo Yooper's sentiments. Technically you get slightly more bitterness than a 60 min. boil, but I treat as if it's a little less, say 75% of the calculation for a 60 min. addition. The problem with using FWH in a 'modern' Scottish ale is all the flavor you're going to get from the hops. Even a small amount is going to give too much hop flavor for the guidelines. If not entering in a comp. I'd try it and see how it goes. Good luck, I'm sure the bier will be good.

Schlante,
Phillip