The Hop Espresso Experiment

Okay-

So I had heard of folks using a French press with hops to extract extra hop flavor and adding it to their beer after fermentation. I wanted to take it a step further and see what would happen if I ran it through my espresso machine.

Here's the pictorial:

Here's my espresso/cappucino maker, it's a pretty cheap model, but it makes good coffee:


Here's a closeup of the portafilter, it helps concentrate the steam and extract out the oils:


I loaded the portafilter with 1 oz. of 8.2% AA Amarillo pellets, and filled the machine with enough water for 2 shots:


I packed in the hops just as you would coffee. With espresso, you do this to really force high pressure steam through a dense "puck" of coffee grounds:

The Results:



The spent hops, you can see they expanded to almost double their size:



So, this stuff was REAL bitter. The best way to explain it is that it tastes like chewing on a whole hop pellet, only in liquid form. It was cloudy, but there wasn't a whole lot of large sediment. Really small beads of oil floated on the surface. It wasn't as aromatic as I thought it might be, but it had some serious taste.

The spent hops were still quite bitter, so I think this method is practical as follows: Extract flavor from the hops as above, add fluid to kegged beer/secondary, then take spent hops, put them in an "herb ball" and dry hop with those. I think you'd get a lot more out of the hops this way than dry hopping alone. You could also use the spent hops to bitter during your boil, if you happen to be brewing that day. I imagine you can do the same with a french press, it would just produce more volume.

I don't know if you can really get a good evaluation on an alternative extraction method 'till you actually use 'em in beer, like you mention. Are you planning on utilizing your extract?

brewt00l said:

I don't know if you can really get a good evaluation on an alternative extraction method 'till you actually use 'em in beer, like you mention. Are you planning on utilizing your extract?

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I agree. I'll probably use this technique in the next IPA I do. I'll probably still dry hop and just make a a seriously high IBU IPA...perhaps I can use this method to make an IIPA with half the hops.

Its my understanding that even boiling water really cannot extract bitterness...just flavor.
water lacks the chemical compound to issomerize the alpha acids.

I could be wrong.

For extracting just flavor, and probably aroma....you may very well be onto something.

Ever try this in a beer to see how it compares to dry hopping???

...I'm thinking about trying this method for a hoppy amber ale.

ScubaSteve, your my hero. One of these days, I need to drive over to your place and see you work your magic.

Now I need an espresso machine....

Hey ScubaSteve, we should talk. I see you did this experiment years ago, but I have done some experiments of my own, and have had a breakthrough. I'm teaming up with 16Mile Brewery in Delaware on a collaboration you might find interesting. We think we have a "world's first" product, and, without giving too much away before it is marketed, we'd like to send you a sample. Call me at 302-753-0672 for all the details. Thanx

thehix5019 said:

Hey ScubaSteve, we should talk. I see you did this experiment years ago, but I have done some experiments of my own, and have had a breakthrough. I'm teaming up with 16Mile Brewery in Delaware on a collaboration you might find interesting. We think we have a "world's first" product, and, without giving too much away before it is marketed, we'd like to send you a sample. Call me at 302-753-0672 for all the details. Thanx

Click to expand...

Sam, is that you?