Whirlpooling in different styles?

[ArizonaGoalie]

I recently brewed my first hazy/NEIPA and had never whirlpooled hops before after the boil. I didn't even know this technique existed. Well, I was very happy with the results. Now I've brewed 3 hazy IPAs and they've turned out great. Hoppy as hell. I'm in love.

Wondering if anyone has ever tried to whirlpool hops outside the hazy/NEIPA style? Is this a good idea or bad idea?

Brewing a Stone Delicous IPA clone with Lemondop and El Dorado, and thinking of doing a whirlpool addition. I've brewed this many times with excellent results, but never with a whirlpool hop stage.

Thoughts? Pros? Cons?

Thx.

 

[BrewChatter]

I always whirlpool late addition (0 minute, flameout) hops, no matter what the beer is. I figure that if I'm trying to extract the terpenes with that addition, I might as well streamline my process with what will give me the best results. Had tons of luck so far! The only real con was improving my process, adding a little extra time to brew day, but that's more of a pro in my opinion! Hope that helps!

 

[Franktalk]

I whirlpool often. As BrewChatter already mentioned, I have changed any 'flameout' additions to 'whirlpool' additions. Examples include pale ales,--any pale ale that isn't dry hopped is whirlpooled;--English bitter and IPA, and steam beer. You can (almost) get dry hop quality with whirlpooling. Additionally, whirlpooling avoids the oxidation pitfalls of dry hopping.

 

[ArizonaGoalie]

Thanks to both of you. Going to whirlpool my flameout additions in this next batch.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

A month or two ago I brewed a Pale Ale that was my first time fermenting under pressure in a keg. I was not sure how I would dry hop, so I just swapped the dry hop addition for a 20 minute whirlpool at 170F. I was pleasantly surprised with the hop character in that beer. I went ahead and used the same technique for the Pale Ale I just kegged (5 gal batch, 18 IBU Columbus for Bittering, 1 oz Amarillo @ 10, 1 oz Amarillo @ 0, 2 oz Amarillo @170F for 20 mins, no dry hops).

I would be curious to try a dry hopped vs whirlpool version side by side. It has made me think that I am not getting as much flavor out of my flameout hops as I could get. As you might expect, moving 2 oz of hops from a dry hop addition into a 170F whirlpool did boost the bitterness level of the beer. I suspect it is a combo of the 2 oz of whirlpool hops as well as the other hops staying warm longer.

I also suspect your chilling process and time makes a big difference. I recently made some 3/4 gal batches to play with hop character. I was able to chill those so fast, that I got very little hop character out of a flameout addition. It made me wonder how that applies to my 5 gal batches, where it takes me a few minutes to get my chiller going and a few minutes to drop below 160F.

For me a whirlpool/hopstand is a fairly manual process. I tend to set a timer and give the wort a stir every 5 minutes. Also if I add in my immersion chiller to drop the temps, I cannot close up the lid on my kettle without removing the chiller. (A kettle with a whirlpool port and a pump might have to be on my upgrade list.)