Anyone have experience using a hop slurry to dry hop?

[Hedo-Rick]

I've come across a little bit of information about this process, but was wondering if anyone can share their first hand experience on the pros/cons of dry hopping using a hop slurry.

This is a little something I found on another forum that discussed the process:

"they discovered if you steep the raw hops in a bit of water to make a thin slurry @ 160 - 170F for 10 - 15 minutes then dump the whole thing into your finished beer for dry-hopping that it almost completely eliminates the associated astringency and brings new heights to dry-hopping with a more integrated, softer palate while retaining that fresh hop burst. It works."

Who the "they" is in the paragraph is I don't know, but I am interested in hearing your thoughts.

 

[stpug]

I've read about a slurry method in For the Love of Hops, but the method differs from what you've posted above. Basically, it mixes ~70F de-aerated water and pellet hops; allowed to create a consistent slurry (~1 hour); then pumped into the brewery's fermenter. Dry hopping takes place according to the brewery's schedule. What I picked up from the book was that the sole purpose was to give the ability to pump the slurry into the fermenter - nothing more or less.

What you post above takes a slightly different approach for different reasons, and it's probably worth "investigating" . I would ensure that you're using de-aerated water as you want to keep the introduction of oxygen to a minimum by the time you're dry hopping. What exactly is de-aerated water? I don't know but I would try to make some

Cool idea!

 

[ArcLight]

>>What exactly is de-aerated water?

Water that is boiled and then cooled. It temporarily is Oxygen deficient, but will begin to absorb O2 so it should be used right away.

 

[nicklepickles]

that part that seems suspect to be is when it says "it almost completely eliminates the associated astringency and brings new heights to dry-hopping".
In my experience, dry hopping has never added an astringency, and the wording seems gimmicky. Give it a try though! id be interested to hear if it works well

 

[stpug]

>>What exactly is de-aerated water?

Water that is boiled and then cooled. It temporarily is Oxygen deficient, but will begin to absorb O2 so it should be used right away.

I was also under this impression until I read this thread on ProBrewer:
http://discussions.probrewer.com/showthread.php?27919-Deaerating-water-for-high-gravity-brew

And then I didn't feel so confident that it was void ENOUGH of oxygen. Probably at the homebrew scale it is sufficient, but maybe something as simple as pumping some co2 through it slowly for several minutes made it sufficient for the pro scale. I don't know.

 

[powermd]

I've come across a little bit of information about this process, but was wondering if anyone can share their first hand experience on the pros/cons of dry hopping using a hop slurry.

This is a little something I found on another forum that discussed the process:

"they discovered if you steep the raw hops in a bit of water to make a thin slurry @ 160 - 170F for 10 - 15 minutes then dump the whole thing into your finished beer for dry-hopping that it almost completely eliminates the associated astringency and brings new heights to dry-hopping with a more integrated, softer palate while retaining that fresh hop burst. It works."

Who the "they" is in the paragraph is I don't know, but I am interested in hearing your thoughts.

I did something like this for my last DIPA when the primary hopping schedule didn't deliver what I wanted. For a 6 gallon batch, I mixed 6 oz of hop pellets with 1 L of boiled water and let it sit for 60 minutes. I then added the slurry to the fermenter and shook it up. Within 24 hours the beer had a gigantic punch of hop flavor and aroma- exactly what I was looking for. I will be using this technique again!

In retrospect, I'd probably lighten up the hopping though, 4oz would probably have been about right.

 

[Hedo-Rick]

I did something like this for my last DIPA when the primary hopping schedule didn't deliver what I wanted. For a 6 gallon batch, I mixed 6 oz of hop pellets with 1 L of boiled water and let it sit for 60 minutes. I then added the slurry to the fermenter and shook it up. Within 24 hours the beer had a gigantic punch of hop flavor and aroma- exactly what I was looking for.

Wow that is a lot of hops! I'm only using an ounce for my APA.

Roughly what temp was the water you used to make the slurry? Because I had originally read 160-170F, but Stpug quoted 70F from the book For the Love of Hops.

Did you add the slurry directly to the primary or secondary fermenter?

 

[powermd]

Wow that is a lot of hops! I'm only using an ounce for my APA.

Roughly what temp was the water you used to make the slurry? Because I had originally read 160-170F, but Stpug quoted 70F from the book For the Love of Hops.

Did you add the slurry directly to the primary or secondary fermenter?

I made it just as I would French press coffee. I poured boiling water over the hop pellets in the press, and filled it to the brim. At 60 minutes I had pretty thick hop sludge, so I added that to the fermentor using a funnel to assist. I actually had to siphon some beer to help wash out the gunk. Then I shook up the carboy really well, and let 'er go for 24 hours before tasting. It was pretty much where I wanted at that point, but I let it go another 4 days before kegging.

 

[BrewDawg79]

I did something like this for my last DIPA when the primary hopping schedule didn't deliver what I wanted. For a 6 gallon batch, I mixed 6 oz of hop pellets with 1 L of boiled water and let it sit for 60 minutes. I then added the slurry to the fermenter and shook it up. Within 24 hours the beer had a gigantic punch of hop flavor and aroma- exactly what I was looking for. I will be using this technique again!

In retrospect, I'd probably lighten up the hopping though, 4oz would probably have been about right.

I'm slightly confused. Are you saying that you added the slurry and shook it up after primary fermentation was over? If so, that seems a little risky (oxidation) to me. If it worked for you then great, but I might opt for a multi-stage dry hop schedule before I go shaking fermented beer.

 

[SlowBoy]

I have done this on my last few beers including a version of the IPL in the link below altered as described below.
I use 8oz of water per 1 oz of hops at approximately 170 F, I find that at 8oz I get a dense easily poured light slurry . I will let this sit for 20 minutes stirring occasionally and then pour the entire mixture into the fermenter.
I have done a side by side on a split batch of IPA and noticed much more hop character and a little more aroma from the hops (verified by blind taste testing friends and GF). I used the same volume of hops between the two batches and allowed them to soak for 2 days. On top of the overall impression I did notice a few things. The hop slurry initially had more of a vegetal flavor, this passed after a little over a week after first sampled. I normally find my dry hopped beers a little harsh the first couple of weeks, this was not the case with the hop slurry.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/india-pale-lager-recipe-384706/
I used fwh instead of a 60 min addition and I skipped the entire whirlpool addition on this recipe in favor of a 2oz Citra & 2oz Centennial slurry one week before kegging at which time I crashed from the original 48-50 degree lager temp to near freezing. I feel like the recipe tells you exactly what your getting into; a full assault of hop aroma and flavor but with the surprise of a clean crisp finish.

Edit: I wanted to add a note, I believe you get the best results out of the hop slurry when pitching into a beer that is at crashing temperatures and stage. I will need to experiment a bit more to verify this.