Hop testing (Dry hopping Coors Light)

[tempestam83]

Saw something on a here a while back about taste testing hops so I thought I'd give it a try.

Drop around 6 pellets into each bottle and sealed back up tight.

Going to let them sit for a few days and try them.

Looking forward to trying to taste the difference between all these hops.

 

[BigMack]

I've heard of people doing this, but I'm not sure how effective it really is at getting an idea of how the hops taste. I think you are better off brewing a single hop beer or finding commercial single hop beers.

 

[FreddyMar3]

Looking forward to your results, though this should be more for aroma, right?

We are doing the french press test on some hops at our club meeting next week.

 

[HolderHouse]

Interesting! Let us know how it turns out.

 

[tempestam83]

Early update. Opened a can after about an hour and the thing practically exploded and overflowed with fizz all over the place.

Same with all the rest. Emptied out some of the beer in them and added a few more pellets. And sealed back up.

Will keep posted.

 

[stonebrewer]

6 pellets? That seems to be a lot. I have done this with one or two pellets with good results. Really lets you taste the oils of each hop type and determine what you like. I also mixed them once I documented ( I write notes for almost all of my brewing exploits ) my thoughts on the single hop varieties to see what hops I would like to mix. Fun experiment involving beer! Cheers!!

 

[beernutz]

OP are you dry hopping at room temperature? How about when you opened the beer and it fizzed, had it been cooled first or was it opened warm?

--just curious

 

[tempestam83]

Everything was at room temperature. I'm wondering if using glass bottles and re-capping them would have worked better. These are those weird pint bottle/can screw tops.

 

[chisena]

This is hilarious. I love it. Why not!? You'll get the general profile of each hop. I wouldn't count on them tasting good enough to drink the entire can of half-flat hop-flavored Coors though.

 

[slym2none]

I did this recently with a bottle of Miller High Life & some experimental hops. It worked well, as I got a good idea of what the hops taste & smell like.

FTR - my beer was neither foul-tasting nor flat.

 

[chisena]

FTR - my beer was neither foul-tasting nor flat.

That's because you started with High Life... which rocks.

 

[slym2none]

High Life is the least-terrible BMC option out there. But it's still terrible.

 

[rupert130]

Everything was at room temperature. I'm wondering if using glass bottles and re-capping them would have worked better. These are those weird pint bottle/can screw tops.

If you open at room temp it will definitely foam over. Before drinking, chill in the fridge for a day. It will help keep all that CO2 in solution. At room temp it all comes out much faster.

 

[tempestam83]

This is hilarious. I love it. Why not!? You'll get the general profile of each hop. I wouldn't count on them tasting good enough to drink the entire can of half-flat hop-flavored Coors though.

That's what I love about home brewing. Why not!?

 

[tempestam83]

This is hilarious. I love it. Why not!? You'll get the general profile of each hop. I wouldn't count on them tasting good enough to drink the entire can of half-flat hop-flavored Coors though.

Thanks for the tip .

 

[MarkO22]

Making a tea with your hops then adding some of that tea to each bottle then recapping will give you much better results doing this experiment. You will release more oils this way and get a better flavor and aroma profile rather than just putting a couple of pellets in each bottle.

 

[tempestam83]

That sounds like a good idea too. Live and learn I guess.

 

[MarkO22]

Our club did this at our last meeting we did the couple pellets in each bottle. One of the head brewers told us afterwards to achieve a better result with this experiment you really want to extract as much of the oils you can from the hops and the best way to do that is add them to boiling water. Also you are going to have alot of hop debris in each bottle by just adding pellets

 

[skiumah]

Our club did this at our last meeting we did the couple pellets in each bottle. One of the head brewers told us afterwards to achieve a better result with this experiment you really want to extract as much of the oils you can from the hops and the best way to do that is add them to boiling water. Also you are going to have alot of hop debris in each bottle by just adding pellets

So what would this process look like? I really want to try this as I'm starting to suspect that I don't like some #fancyhop varieties, namely Simcoe and/or Mosaic. I'm thinking something like:

1. Pour boiling water over each hop in small container/cup
2. Steep (5 min? 30 min?)
3. Pour each cup of hop water through a strainer and into a bottle of light beer
4. Cap, let sit for a few days at room temp
5. Refrigerate for 24 hrs, then drink.

 

[MarkO22]

So what would this process look like? I really want to try this as I'm starting to suspect that I don't like some #fancyhop varieties, namely Simcoe and/or Mosaic. I'm thinking something like:

1. Pour boiling water over each hop in small container/cup
2. Steep (5 min? 30 min?)
3. Pour each cup of hop water through a strainer and into a bottle of light beer
4. Cap, let sit for a few days at room temp
5. Refrigerate for 24 hrs, then drink.[/QUOTe

If we were to do this again i would follow your process. Maybe steep for 15-20 min. Let tea cool down to room temp then add to bottles. you would probably only need 1-2 pellets per bottle. Think i would do maybe a pour of about an oz. of beer to an oz. of the tea

 

[stonebrewer]

I personally think that the alcohol, acting as a solvent, extracts plenty of hop oil for this to work and just adding the hops is less work (yeah, I am a lazy brewer!). I used glass bottles, left in a warm closet for a month, then chilled for a week. All the hop debris was in the bottom and I had no foam issues.

Your boiling water method will likely add some bitterness, so it might be worth doing that sometime down the road when I find myself with some tasteless yella beer again...Cheers!

 

[CamG]

This is a great idea.
I know there are a few hops out there that I really dont enjoy.
This would be a good way to find out what they are.

Thanks,
Cam

 

[chisena]

Thanks for the tip .

You're welcome!

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

I considered using those aluminum bottles as a priming tester, but I had a really hard time getting the tops back on with a tight seal.

I don't think it would be a waste to try this dry hopping experiment with a nice blonde craft beer.

 

[tempestam83]

Partial results are in. Tested about half las night. The hops definitely imparted a lot of flavor to each sample not just aroma. And they only sat for three days.

Each beer was completely changed by the hops. Mosaic and Galaxy both had a tropical fruit/mango flavor with a little citrus. Centennial and Columbus were both sort of piney with a little citrus. Chinook I just could not get my head around. Couldn't put my finger on it. Still working on this whole "palate" thing.

This definitely works though. If any one is interested in trying to pinpoint flavor/aroma of different hops this is the way to go. I let them sit at room temperature for three days then refrigerated. All the hops sank to the bottom and the hoppy Coors Light was crystal clear.

 

[jcav]

I love stuff like this!

John

 

[IslandLizard]

I'm glad to see your experiment worked so cleanly!

At our BJCP study group one of the participants had dry hopped commercial Kolsch bottles that way for a week or so. At the meeting the flavors and aromas were very defined, and the presentation met its purpose. The only thing that made the experience less stellar, we encountered lots of floating hop particles in the samples. Perhaps the carbonation brought the hop sludge back up when re-opened.

Your flat beer may have prevented the chewiness.

 

[tempestam83]

Part II.

Got to tasting the rest tonight (while watching Terminator)

Even though they're flat they actually don't taste that bad.

Citra turned out to be very tart with some citrus and tropical fruit.

Simcoe was also slightly tropical with some kiwi and candy apple while amarillo was slightly fruity with what my wife described as "barn or dried grass."

Warrior stood out because the beer actually tasted like an IPA. Very bitter. You can see why it's used as a bittering hop. But kind of cool that it adds bitterness in a dry hop too.

One thing I took away from this is how hard it is to actually describe what it is your tasting. They all had the same basic fruity flavor but each was was unique in its own way that was really hard to put a label on.

On the fruit scale, galaxy, mosaic and citra took the cake, while columbus and centennial were more on the bitter/piney side.

 

[AZCoolerBrewer]

Chinook I just could not get my head around. Couldn't put my finger on it. Still working on this whole "palate" thing.

Very interesting that you had the same experience as me with Chinook. I dry hopped my American amber ale with Chinook and while I could tell it was there, it was really hard to put a bead on it. I thought it worked well with the style, but for sure wouldn't use it to dry hop an American IPA.

 

[Ruckusz28]

Good read! That's one way to do it. I'll definitely keep it in mind for when I find some crazy experimental hops on the shelf. How much flavor was added from the dry hop?