Hop stand in priming sugar water. Thoughts?

marshall_tucker · Aug 3, 2015

Bear with me fellas...had a crazy idea to use a pseudo-hop tea in lieu of dry hopping (or move some of the dry hop to this step). So prior to bottling the beer, when you get your sugar water boiled up, howzabout tossing in an ounce or so of hop pellets when the temp reaches 160F, and letting them steep for 30+ minutes? Would use a strainer bag of course.
I was thinking that maybe this would lend a "fresher" dose of hop aroma/flavor, largely because the oils aren't mingling with yeast cells like they would in the fermenter.

I've read about people using french presses to make hop tea's, and i thought i recall them doing it more for the purpose of bittering, rather than flavor/aroma (which is what i'm aiming at). I did hear reports of slightly nasty grassiness as a result.

If you don't think this will work, or you believe/know that it will do more harm than good, please by all means educate me. it's just an idea, and i wanted to run it past everyone for opinions.
do hop stands work better in wort, compared to straight water? (well, water with a few oz of corn sugar)

Cyclman · Aug 3, 2015

I think it will work, but it will not have the "fresh" flavor of dry hopping. It will be more like a late addition. Now, you could dry hop your priming sugar water...

The_Bishop · Aug 4, 2015

More or less a waste of time, know people who have tried this. There's not enough volume of liquid, so it doesn't really carry over anything into the beer.

sandyeggoxj · Aug 4, 2015

The_Bishop said:
More or less a waste of time, know people who have tried this. There's not enough volume of liquid, so it doesn't really carry over anything into the beer.

THIS!

What makes the hop additions work in the boil is the volume of liquid the hops can come into contact with. It is the same concept as trying to make a partial boil IPA that is very hoppy. Pretty challenging.

Wynne-R · Aug 4, 2015

I use a French press, with a little acid and everclear, about 14 g of leaf hops in 500ml of 170F water.

It tastes like dry hop, but its at least four times as efficient.

Be careful, its easy to use too much. I add it to the priming sugar water after it cools. I havent steeped it with the sugar, Im afraid the hop would soak up some sugar and mess up the carbonation.

danthebugman · Aug 4, 2015

Wynne-R said:
I use a French press, with a little acid and everclear, about 14 g of leaf hops in 500ml of 170F water.

What kind of acid do you use?

Wynne-R · Aug 4, 2015

.5 mL of 85% Phosphoric. It seems to cut the grassiness, pH about 4. I don't think it's critical, you just want it to be slightly acidic. It seems alkalinity brings out the vegetal part of the hops.

15mL of alcohol seems to be necessary to extract the volatiles. Pure water doesn't do much.

I used to use beer, now I drink the beer and use fake beer for the solvent.

It's funny, when I bought the everclear the clerk asked "You're not going to drink this are you?" I explained it was a tiny bit cheaper than using vodka.

marshall_tucker · Aug 5, 2015

Wynne-R said:
"You're not going to drink this are you?"

...to which i'd have to respond by asking "why else are you selling this in a liquor store?"

bummer reading some of the responses, and i'm not exactly jones-ing to go buy a french press, so maybe this idea is out then. oh well, no worries.

to dry hop in secondary, or not to secondary? that is the question...i'll rock-paper-scissor it with a buddy at that time

paperairplane · Aug 5, 2015

Dry hop in primary, no big deal

Hop stand in priming sugar water. Thoughts?

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