Making/Brewing With EtOH Extract of Hops

[Ouroboros]

I've heard that some breweries use extracts to get an intense aroma and flavor in their IIPA's, but most commercial extracts use supercritical CO2 or volatile nonpolar solvents. Has anyone any experience with making or using ethanol-based hop extracts?

Here was what I was planning to do:
Add 2-4 oz hop pellets to 1 cup of grain alcohol and let sit covered in darkness at room temperature for 1 week. Strain and add liquids to secondary.

 

[JLem]

this would essentially be dry-hopping, no?

 

[bovineblitz]

this would essentially be dry-hopping, no?

but the ethanol is a much stronger solvent than your beer, which is at most ~10% ethanol.

Hm. Having done a similar extract on a similar plant, I think it would work well, but I have no idea what water-soluble hop compounds you'd be leaving behind that are important... I mean, you have a lot of water around when you boil/dry hop.

 

[JLem]

but the ethanol is a much stronger solvent than your beer, which is at most ~10% ethanol.

Hm. Having done a similar extract on a similar plant, I think it would work well, but I have no idea what water-soluble hop compounds you'd be leaving behind that are important... I mean, you have a lot of water around when you boil/dry hop.

in general, will 100% EtOH extract different compounds than a 5-10% EtOH sol'n? Or will it simply extract identical compounds more quickly? I still think this would be like dry-hopping, but that you'd get the same effect quicker.

As to the water-soluble contents, couldn't those be extracted in the beer if you didn't strain the "hop extract"?

 

[bovineblitz]

in general, will 100% EtOH extract different compounds than a 5-10% EtOH sol'n? Or will it simply extract identical compounds more quickly? I still think this would be like dry-hopping, but that you'd get the same effect quicker.

As to the water-soluble contents, couldn't those be extracted in the beer if you didn't strain the "hop extract"?

100% alcohol will definitely be different than 10% alcohol/90% water. There will certainly be a difference in what is extracted.

If you just dumped the extract solution in, hops and all, then you'd get the water soluble stuff too. I don't know if the 100% ethanol would be extracting more/different stuff than normal wort/beer, but I'd imagine it would be somewhat different.

I'm basing this off general principles though, so I'd be interested to see what happens subjectively.

 

[Beerrific]

I'm basing this off general principles though, so I'd be interested to see what happens subjectively.

I am interested too. Please report back.

One suggestion however, can you pull off a couple bottles before you add to secondary? That way you can compare. Even better would be to split it into 3 vessels: one nothing/control, one with traditional dry hopping, and one with the extract.

 

[Ouroboros]

I am interested too. Please report back.

Will do. I've got my hops marinating in grain alcohol right now.

 

[bkov]

what if after soaking, you let it outside in the sun for a few days and let most of evaporate

 

[Bendbiker]

but the ethanol is a much stronger solvent than your beer, which is at most ~10% ethanol.

Hm. Having done a similar extract on a similar plant, I think it would work well, but I have no idea what water-soluble hop compounds you'd be leaving behind that are important... I mean, you have a lot of water around when you boil/dry hop.

I see what you are referring to but I have never tried it

 

[Ouroboros]

what if after soaking, you let it outside in the sun for a few days and let most of evaporate

Probably not a good idea. I doubt there would be many iso-alpha acids in hop extract that has been kept cool, so skunking may not be an issue, but UV exposure would probably degrade other compounds.

I don't know how to reduce the volume by evaporating the solvent without also losing a chunk of the volatile compounds that I'm trying to keep. Volume shouldn't be a problem anyway. A cup of everclear in a few gallons of beer shouldn't make much of a difference as far as total alcohol content goes.

 

[bkov]

bump

 

[bovineblitz]

Probably not a good idea. I doubt there would be many iso-alpha acids in hop extract that has been kept cool, so skunking may not be an issue, but UV exposure would probably degrade other compounds.

I don't know how to reduce the volume by evaporating the solvent without also losing a chunk of the volatile compounds that I'm trying to keep. Volume shouldn't be a problem anyway. A cup of everclear in a few gallons of beer shouldn't make much of a difference as far as total alcohol content goes.

What's the status?

I agree about the evaporation, not worth it... good concept but you're right the everclear won't make much of a difference and you don't want to lose the good stuff.

 

[Ouroboros]

What's the status?

I filled a foil-wrapped mason jar with 500 ml everclear and added a hop bag containing 1 oz Citra, Simcoe, and Amarillo (3 oz total). The hops soaked for 1 week at room temperature in my closet.

After squeezing the hop bag dry, I got about 350 ml of extract and added it to the secondary. I've been procrastinating bottling, so no tasting notes as of yet. I'll let you know what I think when I'm finished.

I can tell you that the aroma of the extract was strong, though. As far as taste goes, one drop diluted 1:20 (to make it something like 4.5% abv) was definitely hoppy, but kind of gross since I diluted it in water.

 

[Ouroboros]

UPDATE:

I've cracked open the first bottle of this beer last night and it was delicious.

The citra hops come in strongest with the aroma - there is definitely an additional fruitiness to it that isn't exactly the same as simcoe+amarillo in equal proportions. The beer wasn't estery to begin with, so I feel confident that the tropical fruit aromas are from the citra hops. Flavor-wise, it tastes like a simarillo IPA. There were no vegetal notes, thankfully. I hear it can be a problem with hop teas.

The head and head retention are better than anything I've brewed before. I don't know if this is more an effect of extracting more hop oils with EtOH or using a little more flaked wheat in the mash than I usually do.


How much of this can be attributed to the EtOH extract I don't know. I've got some 1 gallon jugs free, so maybe I'll do a little experiment here so I can say precisely what the effect of the extract is.

 

[bkov]

so do you think you got more or less flavor/aroma from it verus if you dryhopped with the 3ounces

 

[Ouroboros]

so do you think you got more or less flavor/aroma from it verus if you dryhopped with the 3ounces

It is very similar to dry-hopping. The hop presence strikes you as soon as you pop the cap.

The main drawbacks I see are that grain alcohol is more expensive than hop bags and other people have reported extracting off flavors. I may have a retarded palate or be an anecdotal case of success.

On the upside, you don't lose any beer due to absorption from the hops. You also don't have to worry about sanitizing hop bags, cramming them into carboys, and taking them out again.