So Tomorrow, I Cold Hop

I had to explain dry hopping again today. Every time I explain what it is, I say, yeah, I know, it really should be called "cold hopping."

I think we can change the name. I think we should. I think it is our duty, and we must.

You may resist based on a sense of tradition. Tradition. That's why we have the stupid QWERTY keyboard, you know, because it makes people type SLOW enough that manual typewriters don't jam. And that's why we have U.S. customary units of measure. And that's why we have a calendar that can't easily be memorized from month to month and year to year. (Ask about my idea for an improved calendar, if interested... but I won't hold my breath.)

There is probably some ancient dude laughing his a$$ off that he got drunk and accidentally coined the term "dry hopping" by mistake, and now a bunch of sheep just keep saying it, as if it makes sense. Okay, maybe that dude is dead by now, but...

So tomorrow, I cold hop.

 

OK, I'm in. 'Cold Hopping' from now on. After all, I don't 'secondary' anymore, but I might occasionally 'cold condition'.

 

I think it will go something like this:


Phase 1: COLD hop? You mean DRY hop, dork. (Maybe this phase lasts 10 days... uh, years)


Phase 2: Cold hop huh. I've heard some of you geeks saying that. How is that different than dry hopping? (Maybe 5 years)


Phase 3: DRY hop? Dude, nobody calls it that anymore. It's COLD hop. What are you, 36 to 38 years old? (2 years)


Phase 4: Dry hop: A term once used by fools who, apparently, were confused, thinking maybe "dry" was the opposite of "hot." (See Arizona: "...but it's a dry heat.")


Phase 5: @JimRausch 's ancestors brag about Jim being one of the first to adopt the new term, forcing Palmer, Jamil, et al to revise all their books.


Note: Don't miss the opportunity to add your name to Phase 5. You owe it to your ancestors. After all, like me, you failed to buy IPO shares of FB. This is our chance.

 

Is it really Cold Hopping if the temperature of the beer while fermenting is in the 60's?

More like Not Quite Warm Hopping.

 

Excellent question! I have given that a lot of thought, of course. IMO "Not Quite Warm Hopping" just doesn't have the right ring to it. I also considered "warm hopping," but with the popularity of hop standing/whirlpool hopping, that seemed confusing. In comparison to the boil, the wort is cold during cold hopping, so I am proposing "cold" hopping. Also, some brewers cold hop in their serving kegs, which are cold. Also, due to global warming, the temperature of our fermentations and cold hopping will seem ever colder over time. (I'm in this for the long haul.)

I am not opposed to other suggestions for the new term, but I think we need to quickly build consensus on this important issue so we can begin to productively change the lexicon. Lexicon? Is that a word? If not, let's make it one.

So, CJ-3, are you in?

 

I've thought about this a lot myself actually, but habits are hard to break! You just get so used to something.........

Of coarse I've had a 6 pack, normally would do better I think.

Screw it I"m gonna say "cold hopping" for the next week just because. It's going to be one of those prhases that I just make up excuses to say.

 

shhhh....you don't want them to catch on that we're releasing CO2 into the atmosphere...

Otherwise, I'm in.

 

Impressive typing skills. Probably the same brain-to-fingers connection that makes a good guitar player. At my peak, I hit 36 wpm. I believe that is tied with the fastest rate ever recorded by a chicken pecking at random on a keyboard sprinkled with spent grains. I have to blame something for my slow typing, so I blame the QWERTY keyboard.



(I've been working on the message above since last night. Now, must rest. Later, cold hopping.)

 

How about "Secondary Hop Infusion" kinda has zing to it.

 

It's funny because drinking and playing the guitar makes me WAY better, especially if the people listening are drinking too. Drinking and typing doesn't seem to work that way though. One of the beers I was drinking last night was actually cold hopped. Geez, if they hadn't of arranged the keyboard is such a screwy way maybe I could type better while drinking cold hopped beer?

 

[QUOTE
Phase 5: @JimRausch 's ancestors brag about Jim being one of the first to adopt the new term, forcing Palmer, Jamil, et al to revise all their books.


Note: Don't miss the opportunity to add your name to Phase 5. You owe it to your ancestors. After all, like me, you failed to buy IPO shares of FB. This is our chance.[/QUOTE]

So, is the check in the mail?

 

Come on Jim, we discussed this. I agreed to pay you with a "Like" every time I see you submit a post containing the words "cold hopping," "cold hopped," "cold hops," etc. I haven't seen you using these terms anywhere except this thread, which I "Liked," per our agreement. Now get out there and change the world, one "cold hopped" post at a time.

As you know, the big payoff comes when we see more than half of all HBTers using the correct terminology.

We can do this!

 

In german it is actually called Kalthopfung (translated to english: cold hopping). The term DRY hopping never made sense to me as a german homebrewer. So I'm on your side ;-)

 

Tepid hopping

 

Technically sound suggestion! Thanks. However, IMO, tepid is an ugly word. Not sure why. Reminds me of flaccid. Not the image I want to portray with my IPA.

For some reason, tepid seems like a tough sell, and we are on a timeline here. Need to get past the "dork" phase in only 10 years.

 

Singletrack, I have good news for you!

In this post, from 2004, some dork refers to dry hopping as cold hopping: http://www.brewplus.com/forum/threads/cold-hopping-suggestions.1077/

In this journal article, from 2013, some other dork refers to dry hopping as cold hopping: http://www.hopsteiner.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/3_Dry-Hopping-A-Study-of-Various-Parameters.pdf

Based on this evidence, I propose that we are, in fact, ALREADY in Phase 2. Geek.

 

Or fermentation hopping

 

Thank you Crazyeyes! I really like the word "infusion" for this. The "secondary" part seems problematic, since 1) Everyone loves to hate on "secondary" these days, and 2) I have no idea what I thought I was going to (slowly) type here, because I was distracted by "others."

And that reminds me... I was driving to the mountains several years ago, and I was behind this car that had a bumper sticker that said "Others." I thought that was clever. Then, a couple weeks later, I made the same drive, and I got behind the same car with the bumper sticker that said "Others." I had to chuckle at that. Then, a couple days later, I was driving in town, and I saw that same car with the bumper sticker that said "Others" parked on the street. But that's not the weird part. I have made that same drive to the mountains, and that same drive in town, figuratively, a thousand times since then, and NEVER seen that car again. Weird, huh?

...but I digress. Holy cow, what have I been drinking anyway? Time to cut to the chase: Secondary Hop Infusion has a lot of merit, but 8 syllables is more zing than most can handle for something we say at least 10 times a day. And it takes me a full minute to type it. Appreciate the suggestion, but I think we should all rally behind "cold hop," "cold hopped," "cold hopping" unless something better comes along. (Only took me a minute to type that entire last sentence.)

Still, how about "cold hop infusion" once in a while, just to spice it up. That works!

 

I'll continue to dry hop.

 

I get it. Probably spooked by "Others," right?

 

NO NO NO. We must rid the homebrew world of the term secondary!

 

How about "cool hop"? or "chill hop"?

 

JohnSand, I am humbled by your work here, and I apologize for not recognizing it properly sooner. Sheer, cold hopped poetry.

I will repeat an excerpt for the benefit of the community: "...remove the term "dry hop" from literature and history, because of it's racist history. Villains in comic books and movies will be seen dry hopping."

Just let that soak in a minute, dry hoppers. We're looking at you, Fedora. It's time for a change.

 

It's true that dry hopping is a misnomer but cold hopping is equally so. We cool hop, warm hop, and room temp hop but cold hopping just doesn't work. The hop oils won't disperse properly in cold beer. That's why even when we keg hop we leave the hops in at warmer temps for a couple days before chilling the keg.

To convince me you'll have to come up with a term that is a better descriptor of the technique that rolls off the tongue as easily or easier than dry hop. Cold hopping ain't it.

 

I say we just call it "hopping" and change boil kettle additions to "wort hopping" or "hot hopping" or whatever.

 

Everyone has it wrong. I'm coining the new term as "Ambient Hopping"

 

Are you all just going to ignore this? I thought it was brilliant but I would call it fermenter hopping/ed, to reduce the syllables.

Ambient hopped is a misnomer if you are brewing a lager which is likely below the ambient temperature, or an ale in your garage in winter which is likely being heated above ambient temperature.

I like cold hop but I also keg hop which I think would be a more appropriate use of the term cold hop. So if I give someone a bottle of beer and say I cold hopped it, obviously this didn't occur unless it was bottled from a tap.

Thoughts?

 

Post Fermentation Hopping..PFH.

Could be good until that food babe writes another artical denoucing beer for containing ... PFH

 

Maybe not have it linked to temperature but the brewing process so Completion Hopping or Final Hopping?

 

I thought everyone missed it lol I thought it was pretty good. I guess some would say you can dry hop during fermentation (fermentation hopping) or after fermentation is complete (do we need to think of a name for this?) so fermentation hopping isn't a catch all.

Or to my original thought, fermentation hopping. Sure, you can dry hop during fermentation and after so you could make the argument that it isn't always "fermentation" hopping but close enough lol

 

Now that is a thoughtful comment with a compelling argument. Thank you for that.



Please allow a sincere, if unentertaining, rebuttal.



We are hearing in this thread that "cold" hopping doesn't seem quite right, because the beer generally isn't really cold during cold hopping. After considering nearly every alternative that has been proposed in this thread, I still am a proponent of the term "cold hopping" for a number of reasons, but I acknowledge the validity of your objection. (And I am still open to the silver bullet idea that I may have missed.)



However… There is no such thing as cold, scientifically. There is only the absence of heat. If "cold" is the complete absence of heat, then beer is never truly cold. Clearly, you are defining cold in some other way, such as the temperature of food (beer) in your refrigerator. That's a reasonable, practical definition of "cold," but I ask you to consider a broader definition.



Many brewers come from a scientific or engineering background, and they may have a different understanding of the word "cold." Cold is relative, and compared to hopping in the BK, cold hopping is cold. To science-minded brewers, cold hopping may make complete sense. So what? If it doesn't make sense to you, it doesn't make sense to you. I understand that. But I think you will admit that "cold" hopping makes more sense than "dry" hopping. The beer is more "cold" than it is "dry" during cold hopping.



For now, that's all I got on "cold," because it seems you're not biting on the whole "relative to global warming" thing. On the other hand, you were tempted by the "and some cold hop in their serving kegs" thing, weren't you.



Finally, the end of your message hit an extremely important point, that cannot be overlooked if we really are going to make a go of this. You said, "To convince me you'll have to come up with a term… that rolls off the tongue as easily or easier than dry hop." Right on. I'd like to tackle that point in a subsequent post.

 

Finnish hopping, unless you're a fin and find it objectionable...

 

No, I certainly am not ignoring any of the posts in this thread, as I feel we are about to change the world of beer. As you probably know, I am a slow typist (due to QWERTY), and -- truth be known -- I don't think much faster than I can type.

Anyhow... lots of merit to this suggestion! But let's face facts. "Dry hopping" works on many levels, and it will not be easy to dethrone it. Consider these 3 sentences:

1. So tomorrow, I dry hop.
2. So tomorrow, I cold hop.
3. So tomorrow, I fermentation hop.

Number 3 is a loser on awkward syllables alone. We could shorten it to ferm hop, but "firm" is already a word, and a weak one. Better to "hard hop" than "ferm hop."

Then there's the technical challenge that fermentation is actually complete or nearly complete during cold hopping. That leads us to post-fermentation hopping, as if we needed another syllable.

Mark the words of @Fedora; this term needs to roll off the tongue, or it is DOA. Beer brewers like to advertise their dry hops. Neuter the term, and you've neutered our beer. That won't happen.

 

I'm probably not gonna word this right because of five (now six) dry hopped beers but here we go.

Regarding your scientific statement of cold not existing. Yes, it's technically correct but have you ever cracked open a room temp beer, taken a drink and thought, "Man, that's cold."? I haven't. Then again, I'm not a scientist or an engineer.

Here in your OP, you say the reasoning behind all this is because you had to explain the technique. Doesn't sound like you were explaining it to a scientist who brews but a layman. If you told them you cold hopped the beer they would almost certainly assume refrigerator cold because that is the common use of the word.

I know this thread was started in good fun and I'm all for good fun but I happen to like the term dry hop. Call it whatever you want as long as long as I get my lupulin fix.



Silver bullet incoming...

 

Silver bullet.

Dry doesn't necessarily mean the opposite of wet. In brewing terms, it also means the opposite of sweet. Fresh wort is sweet. After fermentation the beer is not sweet. It is relatively dry.

We add hops after the beer is dry, thus dry hopping.

 

Hmm... fermentation hop isn't right. Neither is secondary, as we don't secondary any more. Is it even secondary? Is the boil Primary? what about FWH?

I propose this arguement in favour of cold: We refer to it at the "cold side", as in post boil, when we talk about sanitation. So we already use "cold" for this area.

 

Great point. Also mentioned previously the german word for it means cold hop, so if someone argues against it on the grounds of tradition we could say they are incorrect there as well. Unless of course they go digging through the history and it turns out it was called dry hopping originally, who knows.

Again I advocated fermenter hopped/ing as opposed to fermentation to reduce the difficulty of saying it while imbibing. No bites on that one? It also dispels the idea that the beer has to be actively fermenting, it specifies a vessel not a brewing stage.

On a side note there is a school of thought (and science) that says that yeast can biotransform geraniol to citronellal during fermentation, so some fermenter hops should be added before fermentation in addition to after, this term could encompass all of these additions. I know some breweries hop in the brite tank but I don't think many homebrewers have a brite tank so we should be okay in that respect. Historically some beer was hopped in the cask but it doesn't sound like common practice anymore, and anyway I think it would be dubbed cask hopping in its own right.