Wet hops vs. Dried .... Flavor implications

[atimmerman88]

Hey all

I didn't have much luck searching for information on this.

Curious what impact using home grown hops wet vs those which have been dried and stored properly on finished beer? Let's keep the argument fair and say the dried hops are froze and used within a reasonable amount of time, say 6 months.

I would really love to brew a wet ho apa this weekend, but I've got no fermentor space but my hops are ready

Hoping by drying and freezing my product will be similar to if I had used then fresh off the bine




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[Cyclman]

http://allaboutbeer.com/article/wet-and-fresh-hop-ale/

I pretty much agree with this.

 

[atimmerman88]

That's a good description of wet hopped beers.

I'm more interested in the homebrewer scale of things.

Does the drying process on the home level, screens/fans, have an equal effect on the hops flavor profile as the commercial drying / pellet icing process would?

Would a homebrewer/grower see the nice smooth notes associated with wet hopped beers if he dried his homegrown hops? Or is drying hops, in any fashion, going to eliminate the 'wet hopped' characteristics


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[Beernik]

I had a Sierra Nevada wet hop beer.

There was nothing about the taste that made me think, "Oh, this is what wet hops in beer taste like."

 

[jpsmithny]

If you can't use the hops fresh then there is nothing to stop you from
drying and freezing them.

I did that last year with my very meager harvest and I used them recently as a dry hop on a summer wheat all grain. The beer was delicious.

I used maybe 1/2 oz. full leaf for a five gallon batch.

I'll dry the harvest this year also and freeze them in in vacuum bags.

 

[GVH_Dan]

That's a good description of wet hopped beers.

I'm more interested in the homebrewer scale of things.

Does the drying process on the home level, screens/fans, have an equal effect on the hops flavor profile as the commercial drying / pellet icing process would?

Ok, the whole idea of doing a "wet hop" is you are getting the whole cone + everything that is in it right at the time of harvest, both good and bad. That means you are getting all the aromas, oils and flavors that exist.

The minute you start to dry them, the oils and aroma's will begin to dissipate. Depending on the temperature you dry them at, they may flash away quite quickly as some have a pretty low boiling/flash point under 100F.

Here's a website with a pretty good description of the 4 oils: http://beerlegends.com/hops

So if you dry them like the big guys in Yakima, you are hitting them with 140F air and most of the Farnesene is gone as is a lot of the other oils. This takes away some of the "spicy" flavors some attribute to wet hopped beer but it also takes away the "grassy" flavors. In some cases, sulfur flavors will also disappear that may have developed by the plant to ward off an insect attack of one sort or another. So depending on your preferences, this could be good or bad.

If you dry at a lower temperature (ambient or less) than some though not all of those oils will be preserved but not as present as with wet hopped.

If you immediately freeze them before drying and then use them relatively soon, you may be able to keep a lot of those same flavors, though using the hops will be a mess. They will be a giant green mush and have way too much water so take that into account when doing your calcs.

Make sense?

 

[atimmerman88]

Ok, the whole idea of doing a "wet hop" is you are getting the whole cone + everything that is in it right at the time of harvest, both good and bad. That means you are getting all the aromas, oils and flavors that exist.



The minute you start to dry them, the oils and aroma's will begin to dissipate. Depending on the temperature you dry them at, they may flash away quite quickly as some have a pretty low boiling/flash point under 100F.



Here's a website with a pretty good description of the 4 oils: http://beerlegends.com/hops



So if you dry them like the big guys in Yakima, you are hitting them with 140F air and most of the Farnesene is gone as is a lot of the other oils. This takes away some of the "spicy" flavors some attribute to wet hopped beer but it also takes away the "grassy" flavors. In some cases, sulfur flavors will also disappear that may have developed by the plant to ward off an insect attack of one sort or another. So depending on your preferences, this could be good or bad.



If you dry at a lower temperature (ambient or less) than some though not all of those oils will be preserved but not as present as with wet hopped.



If you immediately freeze them before drying and then use them relatively soon, you may be able to keep a lot of those same flavors, though using the hops will be a mess. They will be a giant green mush and have way too much water so take that into account when doing your calcs.


Make sense?

Dan thanks for the detailed response. That was the information I was looking for.

You outlined it pretty scientifically too!

I brewed a pale ale last weekend with my harvest. And as others have pointed out I went from bine to kettle in 15 min or so.

I'm excited to see how this impacts flavor.

I'm going to dry some hops as well and see how that effects their flavors.

Beer is fun





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[damdaman]

Hey all
I would really love to brew a wet ho apa this weekend, but I've got no fermentor space but my hops are ready

Go pick up another fermenter for $25, no biggie!

 

[atimmerman88]

Go pick up another fermenter for $25, no biggie!

Wish I could....LHBS is 60 min away and buckets there are $30.

I made due and turned my star San bucket into a fermentor


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