Help for the perfect hopps

[Sagatho]

Hello friends

im working in find "my recipe" i want to do a dry hopped mead, kind like a "ligh beer" flavor i will do an experimental 1 gallon batch to make this hydromel like 7-8% ABV.

but i never use hopps in mead or table wines i brew, what kind of hop i need to use to get a citrus but alittle bitterness flavor?

all advices are grateful recived.

regards.

 

[TandemTails]

Citra would be my first choice for a citrus flavor. I haven't dry hopped yet but have 5 gallons of a tart cherry mead that I'm going to dry hop within the next month.

 

[bernardsmith]

With hops, the longer the boil the more the bitterness you produce. So a 60 minute boil will produce a great deal of the bitterness; a 15 minute boil will highlight the flavor of the hops (not accentuate the acidity or bitterness) and adding hops to the must after you have removed the water from the heat source will highlight the aroma of the hops. Despite what some folk on this forum claim, you CAN boil hops in water. They do not need sugar in the water to allow the maximum flavors to come out , although a lower pH of water helps (so you could add a squirt of lemon juice if you have hard water)..

When I make hopped meads I tend boil the hops in water for 10 or 15 minutes and may dry hop for a week or so before I bottle. With beer you need more bitterness to balance the residual sweetness of the wort. But honey ain't beer. With honey unless you are back sweetening or using some other technique to make a sweet mead the yeast will ferment the mead dry so there is no need for bitterness. What you want is flavor (unless the honey is itself flavor rich).

 

[Sagatho]

thanks for your answers tomorrow i will visit RGVbrew and will by some hopps so citra will be.

bernardsmith thanks alot for your advice i will do the 15 minutes boil and then i will add some hopps for aroma.

With hops, the longer the boil the more the bitterness you produce. So a 60 minute boil will produce a great deal of the bitterness; a 15 minute boil will highlight the flavor of the hops (not accentuate the acidity or bitterness) and adding hops to the must after you have removed the water from the heat source will highlight the aroma of the hops. Despite what some folk on this forum claim, you CAN boil hops in water. They do not need sugar in the water to allow the maximum flavors to come out , although a lower pH of water helps (so you could add a squirt of lemon juice if you have hard water)..

When I make hopped meads I tend boil the hops in water for 10 or 15 minutes and may dry hop for a week or so before I bottle. With beer you need more bitterness to balance the residual sweetness of the wort. But honey ain't beer. With honey unless you are back sweetening or using some other technique to make a sweet mead the yeast will ferment the mead dry so there is no need for bitterness. What you want is flavor (unless the honey is itself flavor rich).

what hops you use?

cheers.

 

[bernardsmith]

I experiment with hops. I like to make single gallon batches and that allows me to play with different ingredients. Go on line and check out the flavor profiles of different hops. Citra is lovely, as is Cascade but so are more exotic hops like and Motueka (from New Zealand) . I have an orange blossom mead that is only a few days in the primary which is fermenting with Nelson Sauvin hops (also from NZ). This is to be a quick mead (low alcohol) - about 6% ABV. I am using the hops to increase the flavor complexity given the relative low amount of honey I am fermenting (about 1.5 lbs in the gallon)

 

[TandemTails]

Since this thread has some good responses, let me jump in and ask a question:

Do the hop aromas dissipate quickly like in beers after dry hopping the mead? I don't really want to waste my time dry hopping only to have the aroma be non-existant after sitting in the bottle for 6 months.

 

[Vex3521]

Would like to see what happens with the dry hopping over time if anyone can bring more light there.

I don't dry hop, I do a boil and add them to tea. At 3 months my current one still really has a great hop note and presence. It's a keeper as far as I'm concerned! Will be checking in 3 months to see where it's at then though