Market for essential oils from hops?

[Eigenbrau]

I have heard some talk of creating air fresheners from hops and it got me thinking a bit. Is there a market for essential oils that come from different hop varieties? I've got a method I've been working on to extract the essential oils from the hop cones and mix them with chlorophyll to give a pretty accurate odor that can be used for candles, air fresheners, etc.

While I've seen essential oils made from generic hops being sold, I wonder if different varieties could be made and sold in the same way.

 

[Revvy]

You're talking for aroma, not making hop oils for brewers to use in their beers?

Probably a very limited market for aroma oils, just probably to beer brewers and geeks like us. BUT if you were creative in your writing and marketing, maybe you could get it into the aroma therapy market, maybe if you wrote up a bunch of new age mumbo jumbo about the "curative properties" of each one. Maybe one for every month of the Zodiac, of for Feng Shui.

 

[Eigenbrau]

You are indeed correct; it would just be strictly aroma. I'm a strong opponent to using extract oils in my brews. Nothing good ever seems to come out of it and I think you lose a lot of the character. From the sounds of it, it looks like it'd be a very limited market selling air fresheners and candles to overzealous brewers such as myself

 

[Revvy]

You are indeed correct; it would just be strictly aroma. I'm a strong opponent to using extract oils in my brews. Nothing good ever seems to come out of it and I think you lose a lot of the character. From the sounds of it, it looks like it'd be a very limited market selling air fresheners and candles to overzealous brewers such as myself

See despite your bias against using hop oils, I think you would be surprised at how well you would do. Pure hop extractions are really no different than using any other pure ingredient. Except in a lot of ways they work better. I think you'd be surprised that if many homebrewers had access to good quality extracts of all the various oils, with control of the alpha acids and the IBUs....we swarm over them.

Sorry but I think you equate using hop essence is brewing as something artificial when all it is is something more controlled.

If I knew .275 MLs of pure Centennial oil could net me x-IBU's when added at 60 minutes, and .xyz mls of cascade and zyx of centennial added to secondary could get me XXX aroma units, many of us brewers would be in hog heaven.




*shrug*

 

[Eigenbrau]

Hmmm, looking at it from that point of view, I might rethink my approach to it then. Controlling (and more importantly, measuring) the amount of alpha/beta acids going into the vials would require some more research and likely some equipment I don't have on hand. I respect your experience and will definitely see what I can do. Maybe there is a market outside of my bias that could be found.

I'll do some research and some experimentation and let you guys know what I find out. Maybe a spectrophotometer is on my shopping list for the future

 

[Revvy]

Hmmm, looking at it from that point of view, I might rethink my approach to it then. Controlling (and more importantly, measuring) the amount of alpha/beta acids going into the vials would require some more research and likely some equipment I don't have on hand. I respect your experience and will definitely see what I can do. Maybe there is a market outside of my bias that could be found.

I'll do some research and some experimentation and let you guys know what I find out. Maybe a spectrophotometer is on my shopping list for the future

Yeah, You eve notice the variability in packets of hops? Two packets of the same hops, in the same size, may have totally different AAU's on them. All those variables could be controlled on your end and made really easy for our usage.

 

[ajdelange]

Hold on a sec guys. The essential oils do not contain bittering principal and do not, therefore, contribute to the bitterness of beer. What they do contribute is aroma and flavor. Hop extracts and hop oils are both sold today. Lots of commercial operations use preisomerized extract because it is not subject to skunking. I'm pretty sure I have seen these extracts (bittering and oils) offered for sale to homebrewers. I remember an office party years back where the Queen Bee, knowing that some of us were beer aficionados, pulled out all the stops and ordered Michelob (bless her heart, she was trying to please). A colleague had just received at the office a shipment of oil he wanted to try in his brewing and we put drops of that in the Michelob. Made a pretty good beer out of it!

I did once extract the essential oils from a pound of Saaz. The stuff really smelled nice but I certainly didn't get much from that pound. I took it to a club meeting and suggested the girls use it as perfume which they did.

Note: For analysis of oils a spec isn't going to be much help. They are OK for determining bitterness but for all the various organics in the oils a GC will be required. Of course GC/MS would be better still but that is totally without the realm of possibility for a homebrewer. A student GC is not (totally without but pretty far out).

 

[Revvy]

Hold on a sec guys. The essential oils do not contain bittering principal and do not, therefore, contribute to the bitterness of beer. What they do contribute is aroma and flavor. Hop extracts and hop oils are both sold today. Lots of commercial operations use preisomerized extract because it is not subject to skunking. I'm pretty sure I have seen these extracts (bittering and oils) offered for sale to homebrewers. I remember an office party years back where the Queen Bee, knowing that some of us were beer aficionados, pulled out all the stops and ordered Michelob (bless her heart, she was trying to please). A colleague had just received at the office a shipment of oil he wanted to try in his brewing and we put drops of that in the Michelob. Made a pretty good beer!

But maybe my man 'mage can perfect the process where we CAN get controlled Bitterness from the oils. Don't break the dream, man.

 

[ajdelange]

You won't get any bitterness from the oils as they don't contain any. I suppose you could buy extract (which contains bitterness) and blend with the oil if you wanted an oil with a certain amount of bitterness but I guess I don't see the point. I'd dump the hops extract (at the beginning or end of the boil according as to whether it was preisomerized or not) for the bittering level I wanted and then add the oils to the wort after it had cooled down some until I got the level of aroma/flavor I wanted. This gives independent control. Once combined, the ratio of bitterness to flavor/aroma is fixed and, of course, if you add to hot wort you are going to lose much of the volatile oils. Seems that keeping them separate gives much more control and flexibility.

Everyone should go to http://www.florapathics.com/p-43-hop-essential-oil.aspx and have a gander at what the aroma therapy folks sell this stuff for. Note - they don't sell it by variety.

 

[Eigenbrau]

I was under the impression that the isohumulone compounds were extracted via steam distillation. Just out of curiosity, where do they go?

 

[ajdelange]

Stay behind in the flask with the rest of the stuff that isn't "essential oil". Remember that an essential oil is, by definition, something that can be extracted with steam. If humulones and lupulones (and their isomers) were carried off by steam they would be on the list of things found in the essential oils and, AFAIK, they aren't. Are you perhaps confusing with humulene? This and related compounds are found in the essential oils of hops.

 

[Eigenbrau]

No, I was referring to the actual bittering compound. I'll have to find a method to extract the humulone compounds from the leftover mass that doesn't involve liquid CO2 and won't strip the chlorophyll out (I learned that the hard way last night when attempting solvent extraction with ethanol). On the bright side, nice grassy smell.

 

[Brewerforlife]

Try hop unions website, they have pretty good info on production & usage procedures of all their re-fined hop procucts. Most of these products are available at Country Malt Group, but might be a little pricey at the 28 ml. size amount for the homebrewer. They might sell it in smaller amounts to the homebrewer, but not sure. I included this years product & price list for this year. Hope this helps!! Cheers!!!!

203 Division Street ¥akima,WA 98902
1-800-952-4873 or 509-453-4792 Fax: 1-800-952-4874 or 509-453-1551
www. hopunion.com
[email protected]





REFINED HOP PRODUCTS

PRODUCT
PKG. SIZE
PER PKG.

Cascade Hop Oil
28ml.
$105.00

Challenger Hop Oil
28ml.
$105.00

Fuggle Hop Oil
28ml.
$105.00

French Strisselspalt Hop Oil
28 ml.
$105.00

Hersbrucker Hop Oil
28ml.
$185.00

Mt. Hood Hop Oil
28ml.
$105.00

North Down Hop Oil
28ml.
$105.00

Styrian Golding Hop Oil
28ml.
$105.00

Willamette Hop Oil
28ml.
$105.00

Hop Oil Base
250 ml.
$20.00

Isohop
250 ml.
$70.00

Tetrahop 10%
1 liter
$85.00

CO2 Extract 150gmAA
Each can
$15.00

CO2 Extract 300 gm AA
Each can
$25.00

C02 Extract 450 gm AA
Each can
$40.00

Kettle RHO ; -
150 gm can
$40.00

Hop Aftershave
2oz.
$17.00

Cascade Hop Aroma Tabs
500 gm.
$95.00

Generic Hop Aroma Tabs
500 gm.
$45.00



SILK HOP VINES
6" silk hop vines — $60 per carton (qty 6 vines in each carton)
3 ' silk hop vines — $40 per carton (qty 6 vines in each carton)
--„.-* .V'
» ^.,.


Effective: 10/1/10
Prices are subject to market fluctuations and may change at any time.

 

[ajdelange]

No, I was referring to the actual bittering compound. I'll have to find a method to extract the humulone compounds from the leftover mass that doesn't involve liquid CO2 and won't strip the chlorophyll out (I learned that the hard way last night when attempting solvent extraction with ethanol). On the bright side, nice grassy smell.

Unfortunately, liquid CO2 (just like that in your CO2 bottle) seems to be the best, especially in terms of your apparent goal, as it extracts alpha and beta acids and the essential oils from the hops themselves - you could skip the steam distillation.

Other solvents that have been used are methanol, hexane, methylene chloride and trichloroethylene and I suppose they could be used on hops that have been steam distilled. If used on whole hops the oils are typically lost. The phrase (Neve, "Hops" p45) "...some breweries are reluctant to use them in case they contain residues of the solvent used." is telling.

 

[brieuxster]

Would you use something like this to extract the oil?

 

[ajdelange]

I used a Soxhlet but I'm hardly thinking of doing this on a production basis.

 

[Eigenbrau]

I used a Soxhlet but I'm hardly thinking of doing this on a production basis.

I'll be utilizing the same system on a 2L level. It should hopefully be enough to get at least a few mL out of a full pound of hop matter. The setup will be nice to have for reagent distillation and purification as well.

 

[ajdelange]

I'd think a pound of hops (unless its pellets) would be a pretty tight fit in a 2L flask. Four - 5 L would be better but keep in mind that if you own a distillation apparatus of more than 4L capacity you must register it with TTB irrespective of what you actually distill in it.

 

[ajdelange]

I take it back. It wasn't a Soxlet but something rather similar. Diagram, with explanation is at http://www.pbase.com/update_image/132252629 and a picture of the yield, if you can call it that, at http://www.pbase.com/update_image/132252630. The diagram is from the ASBC MOA Hops-13 which is for assay of total hop oil.

One pound of Saaz leaf gave me 0.16 mL of oil.

[EDIT]OTOH, intrigued by this thread, I hauled out the old gear and got 0.6 mL from 1/4 lb Sterling pellets. Smells pretty good and the taste is indescribable. No bitterness though (pellets were 6% alpha).