Labradork
Active Member
Howdy Folks,
After a few months off, I'm back to brewing again, having just done an all-grain Old Rasputin Clone, and a Citra and Cascade hopped Pale, both of which I have high hopes for. So here is my situation: I was speaking with a home-brewer buddy of mine a while back and he suggested that after I do a big beer I try running a second mash on the spent grain and try to brew a second, lighter beer from that. I did so, with both the aforementioned brews, and came out with wort, after boiling, of about 1.035 - 1.040 each time. A bit lighter than I usually work with, but what the heck, it's essentially free beer. In the case of the Old Rasputin clone, I did add a few pounds of 2-Row to the mash. Both "second-run" beers were pitched by throwing some of the previously pitched, first-run beer into them. All have taken off into fermentation quite well.
So here's the question. On the Pale, after I cooled the wort for the first run beer and put it in the carboy, I still had about a gallon left in the boil vessel. Those "dregs" also included a few ounces of loose hops. I sparged thru the spent grain into the boiler, added a bit more hops, and let it boil for 45 min. Now, I have a pretty decent idea what my gravity was preboil, even factoring in the gallon of dregs I had left from the previous batch, but the value of the hops is another story. The hops that came with the dregs had already been boiled for up to an hour and I would guess they had had most of their oils dissolved in the wort which had already been drawn off for the first run batch. How much do they have left? In leaving those same hops in the pot and reusing them, am I getting anything meaningful out of them in terms of flavor, or are they pretty much just used up? To complicate the issue, that recipe called for three hop additions, at 60, 15, and flameout. Can I assume that at least the last addition still had some bittering to bring to the party? My goal is to have somewhat balanced flavors, and with not knowing what I'm getting out of the used hops, I feel like I'm guessing.
Any suggestions or insights would be appreciated.
Labradork
After a few months off, I'm back to brewing again, having just done an all-grain Old Rasputin Clone, and a Citra and Cascade hopped Pale, both of which I have high hopes for. So here is my situation: I was speaking with a home-brewer buddy of mine a while back and he suggested that after I do a big beer I try running a second mash on the spent grain and try to brew a second, lighter beer from that. I did so, with both the aforementioned brews, and came out with wort, after boiling, of about 1.035 - 1.040 each time. A bit lighter than I usually work with, but what the heck, it's essentially free beer. In the case of the Old Rasputin clone, I did add a few pounds of 2-Row to the mash. Both "second-run" beers were pitched by throwing some of the previously pitched, first-run beer into them. All have taken off into fermentation quite well.
So here's the question. On the Pale, after I cooled the wort for the first run beer and put it in the carboy, I still had about a gallon left in the boil vessel. Those "dregs" also included a few ounces of loose hops. I sparged thru the spent grain into the boiler, added a bit more hops, and let it boil for 45 min. Now, I have a pretty decent idea what my gravity was preboil, even factoring in the gallon of dregs I had left from the previous batch, but the value of the hops is another story. The hops that came with the dregs had already been boiled for up to an hour and I would guess they had had most of their oils dissolved in the wort which had already been drawn off for the first run batch. How much do they have left? In leaving those same hops in the pot and reusing them, am I getting anything meaningful out of them in terms of flavor, or are they pretty much just used up? To complicate the issue, that recipe called for three hop additions, at 60, 15, and flameout. Can I assume that at least the last addition still had some bittering to bring to the party? My goal is to have somewhat balanced flavors, and with not knowing what I'm getting out of the used hops, I feel like I'm guessing.
Any suggestions or insights would be appreciated.
Labradork
