Randal Hop Press/Hop Tea -- 1st Brew

[DGW]

I'll try to make this as short as I can. A little background--About 2 1/2 years ago I became interested in setting up a brewing system. After some months of lurking, reading, a few post, changing my mind many times, I started building and acquiring parts. I've ended up with a keezer with 6 taps, 4 Co2 and 2 beer taps for porters using beer gas. So far the keezer is a virgin! I decided to start out with all grain brewing, single tier, 3 SS pots with 2 pumps and Camlock Quick Disconnects. I read the massive thread on pressure fermentation. Being clumsy, the thought of not cutting off a hand or slashing a leg by dropping a glass brewing container appealed to me. I ended up using sanke kegs. After finally building the system, I tried my 1st brew 2 weeks ago (EdWorts Pale Ale) , which brings me to the help I need.

I figured I'd make some newbie mistakes, so I didn't disappoint myself. I had help with my son-in-law, who was interested and wanted in on the 1st brew. 1st mistake was he read the timer wrong (Beer Smith) and we threw in the 2nd hop addition after 20 minutes. Everything went well until I screwed up at the final hop addition. I pitched the last hops on schedule (Cascade) with 5 minutes left in the boil. As I was hooking up my counter flow chiller, I realized I hadn't run boiling wort through it to sanitize it. I hooked it up to the kettle and ran boiling wort through it, which meant that I had boiled my final hops addition over 20 (maybe 25) minutes longer than I should have. Fast forward (finally) to today. I've been taking readings with a refractory meter and run the results through MoreBeer's Spread Sheet. Readings were good. I fermented at 68 degrees for a total of 6 days, cold crashed at 35 degrees for 4 days, and couldn't wait any longer to draw off a sample of the brew. I was afraid it would end up overly bitter due to the hop error's (especially the 20 some minute flame out addition). The beer we tasted today was overly bitter, without any benefit from the last hop addition except for being more bitter.

My question I need help with is, if I make up a hop tea with 2 oz's of cascade (leaf or pellets) and add now, will this give me the oil and added flavor burst to offset some of the bitterness? Is 2 oz's enough? I'm thinking around 2 to 3 cups of water at 170 degrees for the tea, using a French Press, and steeping for 30 minutes. If this will help, is it OK to add gelatin at the same time to do the final clarification? How long do I keep the beer in the fermentation keg after the tea addition before I can transfer to the serving keg? I've researched everything I can think of, but I'm hazy on how to proceed at this point. The beer isn't half bad, but definitely needs TLC . Wasn't sure where to post this, so feel free to move it if I screwed up!!

Thanks in advance, Dan

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention, this is a 5.5 gal brew in a 7.75 gal keg

 

[DGW]

I've read a lot of threads on clarifying with gelatin. This thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=53912) while long, has answered my question on adding the gelatin in the fermentation keg. While I'm still unsure, on the amount of Cascade hops to use in my hop tea, unless someone chimes in, I will probably do the following:

1. Make my hop tea with 2 oz of Cascade Hops in 3 cups of 170 degree cooled boiling water
2. Add 2 oz's of Vodka, Let the tea seep for a half hour
3. Add hop tea to a 4 oz mixture of ½ tbs gelatin and cooled boiling water at 160 degrees
4. Bring combined mixture up to 160 degrees
5. Add mixture to sterilized modified quart house filter container purged with co2
6. Add two short sterilized (purged) lines
7. Attach to keg with sanke coupler with beer out blocked and using gas in line
8. Using co2 cylinder, force mixture into keg which will be at 35 degrees

At this point, I'll have transferred all but 2 ½ oz's of the mixture, which will be is left in my quart container. I'll uncouple my modified sanke coupler and let the keg sit for 3 days. I'll transfer to a 5 gallon serving keg after the 3 day rest at 35 degrees. This is assuming the beer will drinkable and I won't have to use it for palm fertilizer.

I won't do this until tomorrow, so anyone that feels like it, please comment. I would appreciate any input you'd care to leave. I've learned everything I'm trying from this forum and I've enjoyed it greatly, but if I'm screwing up, please feel free to set me straight – I'd rather drink beer than pour it out

Again, thanks in advance – Dan

 

[GHBWNY]

To your basic question:

My question I need help with is, if I make up a hop tea with 2 oz's of cascade (leaf or pellets) and add now, will this give me the oil and added flavor burst to offset some of the bitterness?

Hops during the boil contribute mainly bitterness. Hops added post-boil (dry-hopping) contribute flavor and aroma without adding bitterness. While flavor and aroma hit your palate at a different time than bitterness, the bitterness achieved in the boil is there to stay.

 

[DGW]

Thanks, I did realize that the boil released the bitterness of the hops, and water 170-160 degrees released the oils and aroma. I understand the oils and aroma will not lesson the bitterness, but if they have no effect on the finish, why the use off hop tea or dry hopping at all? Does that addition not help meld the total flavor? I was thinking that the addition might change the characteristics to more of a IPA. That was one reason I wasn't sure if the 2 oz addition of cascade was enough. What the heck, I'll brew the tea and gelatin and give it a try. If nothing else, it's a learning experience. Thanks for the reply, but i guess I might as well give it a shot--

 

[GHBWNY]

Of course dry-hopping will have an effect on the overall finish, so sure, give it a try. I don't think you're going to dislike the results. To say that a post-boil aroma or flavor addition will "offset" the bitterness is true to the extent that your palate will respond to the non-bittering additions first and the bitterness last. Regardless of what taste precedes it, bitterness is always the last thing your palate will sense. It's not that the other aromas/flavors will "blend with" the bitterness as much as they will momentarily delay the palate's perception of bitterness. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[DGW]

Well, I added the tea and gelatin. I bought a 1 ounce packages of cascade whole leaf hops, and used 1/2 ounce for my hop tea. I cold crashed immediately after adding the tea and gelatin, at 33 degrees for a week, then transferred into a serving keg and put it into my keezer. As I pressured fermented, the beer was ready to try, just extra cold. When I was talking of the bitterness in my 1st post, I didn't mention that I didn't taste any off flavors with the beer; so now I'm really ready to draw a really cold, some what foamy first beer. I was pleasantly surprised. The beer was clear, and had transformed into a decent tasting IPA ale. The pleasant taste of Cascade hops was my first impressions, with the bitterness now a not unpleasant secondary impression. For my first brew I'm not unhappy

Thanks for the reply GHBWNY. After thinking about this post, I realize I should have posted it in the Beginners Forum. If I have anymore panicky questions, I'll place them in the right forum

 

[WestMichBrewer]

I have a finished beer, fermented and kegged.
The only issue is that it seems a bit sweet and lacking a little hop flavor.
I still have some Liberty hops left over and I am considering boiling some into a small quantity of liquid, maybe doing 2 additions (60 and 15 minute).
My hope would be I would end up with a bitter, hoppy liquid I could add into the keg (after releasing the pressure) that would "correct" my sweetness and flavor issues.

I've tried to search the forums for any experiences with this, but I'm having trouble getting the right search terms I guess.

Has anybody successfully accomplished something like this?
Would it make sense to use some of the finished beer rather than water as my boiling liquid?

 

[DGW]

I have basically done what you described in the above thread. If you have a coffee french press (these are pretty inexpensive) , add 2 - 3 cups of your beer and bring up the temperature to 170 degrees. Add a couple of ounces of cheap vodka and your hops. Seep for a half hour and use the press to separate the hops from the liquid. Let it cool and add it to your keg. I've used this procedure a couple of times now with good results. The nice thing is, if your beer still doesn't have enough hop flavor, you can repeat the procedure to increase the results. From what I've read, it isn't necessary to do a 60 minute and 15 minute boil addition to get the results your after, the half hour seep should work instead. If someone has better way to do it on the forum, hopefully they'll chime in . I'm still relatively a new all grain brewer, but this seemed to work well for me ---

 

[WestMichBrewer]

Was the steeping sufficient to get bittering, or just flavor/aroma?
I'm not looking to add much aroma, mainly bittering and a touch of hop flavor.

 

[Norselord]

Was the steeping sufficient to get bittering, or just flavor/aroma?
I'm not looking to add much aroma, mainly bittering and a touch of hop flavor.

If you want bitterness you need to isomerize the alpha acids in hops. This takes between 30-60 minutes, depending on the degree of isomerization you desire. Also, the alpha acids are not highly soluble, therefore you can only dissolve a certain amount per unit volume of beer.

If you have the time/energy/resources, brew a beer just like you have but make it 50% hoppier and then blend them. You'll end up with 10 gallons of more bitter beer.

 

[WestMichBrewer]

I thought I would post back on what I did and how it turned out...

I poured 2 cups of beer from the keg tap, added it to a saucepan with 3 cups of water and brought to a boil.
I then added 0.3 oz of Liberty hops and boiled for 30 minutes.
Once boiled and cooled I added a little Vodka to preserve sanitation during handling and ran the liquid through coffee filters a few times to separate it from the hop residue.
It was still fairly opaque, but I released the keg pressure, opened the top and poured it in anyway. I shook the keg a bit to mix it in and reapplied CO2 pressure.
After sitting for a day, the beer did taste better - actually it worked almost perfectly as far as what I wanted to add for bitterness and flavor.
But it was still very cloudy. After sitting a few weeks in my keg fridge, what's left of the beer is now very clear and still tastes great.

I had arrived at 0.3 oz amount by playing with the recipe in Brewer's Friend.