Hop infusion affects carbonation?

[ballsy]

Built my own hop randall. Only used fruits in it up until yesterday. Entered two beers in a friendly beer competition, one was my South Pacific IPA. I bought 2 oz of whole cone Sorachi Ace and put that in the hop randall. Filled it and let sit for 10 minutes then proceeded with filling the growler. Growler was poured about 4hrs later. The beer tasted great but had hardly any carbonation when poured. My theory is the oils in the hops affected this (like back in the day at frat keg parties when we wiped the outside of our nose and stirred the beer w it in order to get all the head to dissipate)? Any one experience this effect w your hop Randall? Is there a way to prevent it? I really liked what the whole cone hop did flavor wise but not at the expense of carbonation....

 

[Lefou]

I've been chasing something similar for a while about foam retention simply because I like a moderate amount of foam in the finished beer.

The idea of hop oils and acids being related to foam formation interests me, but it's hard to find a good definitive answer how certain ingredients interact with each other. I've seen articles here and there about how proteins work with hop oils to increase foam in finished beer, but couldn't give anyone a good answer.
I think it's funny how companies can spend big money sequencing yeast genomes so they can filter yeast strains with special traits but no one knows - yet - how to keep a little foam in your damned beer.

 

[GPP33]

It seems the hops would act as a nucleation site for CO2 bubbles thus pulling them out of solution. Or your growler top just didn't seal.

 

[bfish]

It seems the hops would act as a nucleation site for CO2 bubbles thus pulling them out of solution. Or your growler top just didn't seal.

plus your knocking out the CO2 as you initial fill the randall, and then again on the initial fill of the growler. Not to mention any warming of the beer in the randall and growler.

 

[ballsy]

It seems the hops would act as a nucleation site for CO2 bubbles thus pulling them out of solution. Or your growler top just didn't seal.

Yeah that would make sense, just don't hear about it from others that use a hop randall. The growler top was well sealed (I tip it upside down and look/listen for any air or beer escaping). Plus it was only 3-4 hrs from fill to pouring. Even if it was not air tight, it would not have lost its carbonation to that extent.

 

[ballsy]

plus your knocking out the CO2 as you initial fill the randall, and then again on the initial fill of the growler. Not to mention any warming of the beer in the randall and growler.

The water filter everyone uses for this literally only holds a pint of beer (after unhooking it from the keg, I pour out what is in the container and it almost always fills the pint glass to the top). So when I fill the growler, it basically mixes the pint that sat for 10 min's with another 48oz's of beer that flows straight from keg, through the randall and into the growler. The randall and all tubing stay in the horizontal fridge so it's already cold, no warming involved.
Aside from all of that, like I mentioned in the initial post this doesn't happen when I use cut up fruit in it. The technique is identical, and I always have normal carbonation when fruit is used. It's something with the hop....and I'm guessing there is no way to avoid it. Just don't understand why people love using whole cone hops in it if it has this effect on the beer?

 

[GPP33]

Have you tried doing it again to see if it was a one time thing?

 

[ballsy]

Have you tried doing it again to see if it was a one time thing?

I tried two versions that day, the south pac w sorachi ace and then cascade with yoopers pale ale...both were similarly much less carbonated. I will give another try and let site for short period of time (1-2 min) before pouring. Also considered filling 12oz bottles with it instead of a larger vessel to see if that happens to affect it.

 

[Rob Wilson]

Built my own hop randall. Only used fruits in it up until yesterday. Entered two beers in a friendly beer competition, one was my South Pacific IPA. I bought 2 oz of whole cone Sorachi Ace and put that in the hop randall. Filled it and let sit for 10 minutes then proceeded with filling the growler. Growler was poured about 4hrs later. The beer tasted great but had hardly any carbonation when poured. My theory is the oils in the hops affected this (like back in the day at frat keg parties when we wiped the outside of our nose and stirred the beer w it in order to get all the head to dissipate)? Any one experience this effect w your hop Randall? Is there a way to prevent it? I really liked what the whole cone hop did flavor wise but not at the expense of carbonation....

I recently brewed an IPA that I had made several times in the past with good results, but this time I added concentrated Chinook hop oil. The flavor was excellent but it had no foam or carbonation. Kind of disappointing, thinking it was the hop oil.