Hop extract question?

Just wondering if anybody has experience using hop extracts. I know a guy working at an extract plant here in yakima wa ,and might be able to get some.

 

I love the stuff! I use the Amarillo hop shots from northern brewer all the time, with great results. It is easy and the is no hop material to absorb wort or give funny vegetal flavor. To date I haven't had any beer on hand with a similar hop profile to compare. I will be brewing a 15 gallon APA in the next couple of weeks to test the different types of hops. It will be split into three five gallon batches and all will get Amarillo hops. One batch with pellets, one with leaf hops, the other with hop shots.

 

Paul,

Did you ever do that? I'd be interested to hear in how your hopshot version turned out.

 

The experiment is still in process. My brother and I just bottled two days ago. I'll post my findings here as soon as I gather some data, aka drink!

 

Ok so my hop type experiment is complete. First the details.

15 gallons of wort (APA) were split into three boiling vessels and received the same amount of hops (based on AA percentages) at exactly the same times. The hop schedule was 60, 20, flameout, and dry hop. The recipe was from the "brewing classic styles" text and the IBU's were calculated to match. All were rapidly cooled and fermented in separate carboys. The hook here is that three types of the same hop were used, all Amarillo. We used leaf, pellet, and hop shot.

The results were this (Keep in mind this is very condensed):

By far the pellet hop version was the most bitter. The leaf hop version was the most aromatic. But the surprising thing, at least for me was that the hop shot version was the closest to "style" out of the three. During fermentation the krausen was huge on the pellet version while the other two were slightly less. Also the pellet hop version was darker than the other two. The hop shot version smelled very odd at first, almost gross and I thought it was ruined. However after a couple of weeks in the bottle it cleaned itself up and turned out excellent!

if there are any questions feel free to ask and I will try to answer them as quickly as possible. I scoured the Internet an couldn't find another test like this in publication so as far as I know this is the only experiment comparing three types of the same variety hop in a finished beer.

 

Thanks for sharing. I only use jpp pellets. It is interesting to read your results. I read that Pliny the elder uses hop extract to reach the target ibu without getting too much vegetal taste.

 

I've read that too however I'm unsure (from my testing) how that is possible. I'm assuming they use it in place of traditional hops for dry hopping, therefore reducing the vegetal flavor that is unwanted. However the hop extract is not water soluble and requires a decent boil to break down. Even then there is still a sticky brown resin found on the inside of my boil kettle that doesn't break down with any food safe cleaning product I've found. Also forget about dry hopping with it!!! It will just get all over the inside of your fermenter and the aromatic properties are not great at all. I could see using it to get very exact bittering levels but not at all for dry hopping or even late addition hopping.

 

Hop shots are not like the typical hop extract, so you can't really compare your results with what happens for Pliny.

 

Actually according to Vinnie Colurzo at Russian river brewing, they do in fact use the same CO2 extracted hop resin, that is found in northern Brewers HopShot, in Pliney the Elder. Apparently they have since the very beginning of that beer in 1999(see the email below). So yes Denny I CAN compare.

Paul,

Thanks for the email, we do use pure Co2 resin (non-isomerized) hop extract in PTE. We always have from almost the beginning in 1999 when we first made PTE.

Take care,

Vinnie


Vinnie Cilurzo
Owner/Brewer
Russian River Brewing Company
725 4th St. (brewpub address - downtown Santa Rosa)
1812 Ferdinand Court (not open to the public)
Santa Rosa, CA 95404

 

Thanks for the info. I know that some brewers use the CO2 extract, but obviously I didn't realize that RR did. I stand corrected.