First Wort Hopping your Beer

[chewse]

I just read the daily BeerSmith newsletter. Today's topic was on First Wort Hopping where you take a portion of your hops and add them to the boil kettle during sparging. The early entry of hops is supposed to add stronger bittering flavors.

Over the years, I've casually read about this technique but never brewed a beer this way. For those who have, are you happy with the results and are there any issues to be aware of?

 

[billl]

Eh - give it a shot and see what you think. It's not that same as a typical 60 minute addition. More along the lines of a 30 minute in terms of IBU. Its a nice smooth bitterness though.

The flavor/aroma contribution is pretty subtle.

 

[plankbr]

All of my IPA's now employ this technique. However, I use all of my 60 minute addition hops and use them as FWH. I will never go back to a 60 min addition in IPA's or APA's ever again.

 

[smithmd4]

I've done a lot of reading of various sources on this and the results are fairly inconclusive. Some people say you get a more "rounded" bitterness and others find it more bitter and one dimensional. The only thing for sure is that FWH does create more IBUs in lab testing.

I use it frequently, but almost exclusively in beers with a metric ton of hops very late in the boil. I find it gives me the right amount of bitterness for my beers and makes it so I don't get sudden nucleation from 3oz of hops suddenly being thrown in. Most of the time I use .5 oz or less with FWH.

 

[Calichusetts]

I do it out of laziness and time. I often do 90 minute boils, sometimes more. Its far easier to just toss in the bittering right off the bat and have time to do other stuff.

No real/major difference in my experience

 

[MrSnacks]

I do it but I think it's mostly placebo.

 

[TAK]

This us definitely a 'do it and be your own judge' sort if thing. As someone said above, it does give you more IBUs in lab testing. For me, it doesn't give any extra flavor, like some will say, and the bitterness, although technically higher, tastes lower, mostly due to a "smoother" bitterness. I really liked it when I did it, but I don't bother with it that often.

(Just my $0.02, you also get a smoother bitterness from late addition hops. For my IPAs lately, I get most of my bittering at 30 min, and throw in a [exploitive deleted] amount of hops at or after flameout)

 

[Hammy71]

I do it out of laziness and time. I often do 90 minute boils, sometimes more. Its far easier to just toss in the bittering right off the bat and have time to do other stuff.

No real/major difference in my experience

This is sorta where I'm at. I used to watch the kettle like a hawk waiting for the boil to start so I could add my first addition. Now, I pretty much start heating while I'm batch sparging and once the kettle is full, I just dump in the first addition of hops. Have I noticed a difference? Nah.

 

[chewse]

thanks all. I'll give this a try when the grains/hops bill is on the lower side just in case the brew turns out crappy.

 

[stru]

I do it every time... I haven't really noticed a difference.

 

[BlackGoat]

I actually use this with BIAB on any "hoppy" style now. No major difference although I feel like my beers come out more balanced, but I can't singularly attribute it to FHW. I don't think you'll find that it substantially will change the character of your beer for better or worse.

 

[Ibrew2little]

I just tried this actually with an IPA I brewed. I tasted a sample and it's amazing. However I have never brewed this before so I have nothing to compare too. I'll brew again same recipe without this method and see if any difference


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[ATHB]

I have used this method on my last 3 IPA batches. It was appealing to me immediately because it was easier to throw my 60 min hop addition in at the time of mashing out and I don't have to wait for the boil to start. I ran a small experiment on the last 2 batches,one of which was bittered at 60 min and the other was FWH. The batch that was FWH does seem more rounded in bitterness (not as harsh). would I be able to tell the difference blind? I would like to think so but I have not performed that test yet. Both batches were identical in every other way so that was all the info I need (for now) to proceed with FWH on all my batches.