Hop Tea - optimal temperature?

[snarf7]

I love dry hopping but I hate a lot of the crap that goes along with it. Some folks I've chatted with have had success steeping a hop tea and then adding to the secondary or keg when racking. Anyone use this technique regularly? What temperature do you target? I know for whirlpool I typically shoot for around 160F, that seems to give more aroma and less bitterness in my experience. But for a hop tea you'd be extracting with water, not wort so that's probably going to factor in. Anyone played with different temp ranges to see what works best?

 

[balrog]

Plenty threads on here talk about different methods, eg, eg, mostly aimed at getting flavor/aroma and not bitterness (as would be done for the no-boil-beer folks).

 

[Dgallo]

I’ve done it before plenty of times and moved away from it because IMO dryhoping loose provides much more flavor an aroma than a tea. However when I would do it I would actually draw off some beer from my fermenter and would make the tea with that. If you do it this way it won’t dilute your beer by adding water.

Negative aspects of this is increasing the risk of oxidation and in hoppy beers, that’s your killer.

TBH if this was a way to get better flavor and aroma from hops, all the major NEIPA breweries like Treehouse, Sloop, Trillium, Hill Farmstead , And etc would be hopping ing this way. I say stick to low oxygen, dryhopping pactice and then close transfer for kegging to emphasize your hops.

Anything regarding hopping you’ll find in this thread, really good resource from guys who know quite a bit https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/northeast-style-ipa.568046/

 

[snarf7]

I’ve done it before plenty of times and moved away from it because IMO dryhoping loose provides much more flavor an aroma than a tea. However when I would do it I would actually draw off some beer from my fermenter and would make the tea with that. If you do it this way it won’t dilute your beer by adding water.

In this case that's not a concern since I overshot my OG a bit and it should be pushing 10% ABV, so a little dilution would not be a bad thing, even though it's a DIPA

Negative aspects of this is increasing the risk of oxidation and in hoppy beers, that’s your killer.

Because of the oxygen in the water? I'm not sure the chemistry works that way that it would separate out? I was thinking it would reduce oxidation since I just have a tube going into a bottle of water for my blowoff so I could simply funnel the tea in thru the tube and it would be minimal oxygen introduced.

TBH if this was a way to get better flavor and aroma from hops, all the major NEIPA breweries like Treehouse, Sloop, Trillium, Hill Farmstead , And etc would be hopping ing this way. I say stick to low oxygen, dryhopping pactice and then close transfer for kegging to emphasize your hops.

Good point. But they also have MUCH cooler equipment to play with so there's no need for them to compromise. I was thinking of trying this tea idea to a)save more beer since adding a bunch during dry hopping will soak a lot up, (probably will take more hops to get same flavor tho) b)less oxygen introduced because i don't need to take the top off the fermentation bucket, c)avoid hop haze

Anything regarding hopping you’ll find in this thread, really good resource from guys who know quite a bit https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/northeast-style-ipa.568046/

Holy cow, that's 219 pages, that's gonna take me awhile

 

[Dgallo]

In this case that's not a concern since I overshot my OG a bit and it should be pushing 10% ABV, so a little dilution would not be a bad thing, even though it's a DIPA

Because of the oxygen in the water? I'm not sure the chemistry works that way that it would separate out? I was thinking it would reduce oxidation since I just have a tube going into a bottle of water for my blowoff so I could simply funnel the tea in thru the tube and it would be minimal oxygen introduced.

Good point. But they also have MUCH cooler equipment to play with so there's no need for them to compromise. I was thinking of trying this tea idea to a)save more beer since adding a bunch during dry hopping will soak a lot up, (probably will take more hops to get same flavor tho) b)less oxygen introduced because i don't need to take the top off the fermentation bucket, c)avoid hop haze

Holy cow, that's 219 pages, that's gonna take me awhile

So I’ll jist answer it all at once. Yes they have fancier equipment to limit oxygen but most dryhop the same way as a homebrew but they can recirculate while doing so.

Water chemistry does work that way due to dissolved oxygen which you will continue to add to the water as you add the hops, stir them in and then pour the liquid back in the tube. Think LODO brewing practices.

Also you may still have positive pressure in your fermenter which will most likely not allow you to pour it back in through your blowoff valve without pressure

You won’t limit haze because you’ll still be extracting polyphenols.

I mean you do you brother. See if it is what you’re looking for. It may be your preference. I just got much increased hop presence after soft crashing the yeast out of suspension and then dryhopping loose.