Dry Hopping - Opinions on This One Method

[lonestar1]

I've done the 'traditional' method, I guess, of dry hopping with hops in a bag and placed in the secondary fermenter for most of my brews. Recently, I've taken to taking the hop bag and placing it in a cup of boiling water and then placing it in the freezer to rapidly cool. I then take the cooled bag(s) and 'hop juice' and place it in the secondary fermenter.

So far, so good in terms of out comes. Has anyone else performed this method and if so, what were your outcomes in terms of beer quality? That is, did the beta come through for you? Was it muddled by possibly the alpha over powering it?

Thanks for your opinions and outcomes!

 

[brokebucket]

I am failing to understand why you would boil it....I assume that this is to sanitize the bag? If so, are you doing this with the hops inside?

I apologize if I am misreading your post, but I would absolutely not boil the hops again, they dont need sanitizing. I also dont think that I would add any unnecessary water to my fermenting beer.

If you want to use hop bags, a short soak in starsan is all that's needed, then put the hops inside and throw them in primary/secondary. I myself put the pellets directly in primary with no hop sack and have not had a single issue with this.

Me thinks you are over thinking this.

 

[duboman]

Sounds like the OP is basically making a hop tea. Yes, people do this, not me so I can't really comment on how this turns out, I see no reason to just not traditionally dry hop. Usually 3-5 oz for 5-7 days works well for me if I am not simply dry hopping in the keg.

 

[lonestar1]

Thanks for your inputs.
I'm not trying to sanitize the bags. I've done that separately in the past.

My thought was to release more of the beta, primarily, by a quick dip in boiling water and then a rapid cooling before adding the mix/bag into the fermenting beer.

I've had good results with the traditional dry hopping method. I just was experimenting with the above method and wondered if this was a method that others may have tried and found useful and satisfying.

 

[brokebucket]

ok, I see what you are doing now.

I have no idea, but best of luck.

 

[jbaysurfer]

I don't consider that dryhopping. Not sure if the science supports that a quick dunk in boiling water is going to isomerize the betas and not the alphas, but maybe it does and I'm just not aware of it.

 

[GCPHomebrew]

Experiment 1 gal batches. 5would work (from a 5 gal batch). 4different lengths of time in the boiling water vs control group(normal dry hop) I would assume your trying to add a little hoppy ness more than aroma can bring?


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