Reusing hops?

[jim_reaper1066]

Im going to brew my first partial grain beer tonight and still have a can of extract left over. This is likely a stupid question and feel free to blast me in the replys, but can hops be reused to any degree? You cant buy hops around where I live and I have only ever used pre-hopped extract before, so there was no need to order any online. My grains however came with an ounce of Northern brewer bittering pellet hops, which need to be boiled for 30 minutes according to this recipe. If I were to boil these for 30 minutes for my partial grain batch, could they then be tossed into my extract batch immediatly afterwards? Or have all available alpa-acids been leached out by then. Like I said, probably a stupid question but if I can my my (hopefully) last extract beer taste a little better I will.

 

[scinerd3000]

generally there isnt much bitterness or flavor left over for re-use. The only way you could concievable reuse them would be for something like a flamout addition but i still wouldn't suggest it.

 

[dcp27]

you could always just add in that pesky extra can and solve that problem

 

[eriktlupus]

a 30min boil is going to rid your hops of almost all the flavor and aroma components since they are very volatile. the only time i've heard of re-use of hops is from dry-hopping since it doesn't extract alpha acids or flavor components and hence can be used for a long (30min+) boil. there are a few threads on this type of usage from the lean hop shortage yrs.

 

[twoodward15]

Where is fredericton that you can'tget hops nearby?

 

[david_42]

If you take a look at these curves, you'll see that a 30 minute boil extracts less than 50% of the alpha acids. One member of OBC did three IPAs with one batch of bittering hops. He also used the previous aroma hop for flavoring the next batch. The batches had somewhat different characteristics, but they were all good.

 

[NorEaster12]

I'm from the area (I assume you mean Fredricton, New Brunswick), have you tried asking at any of the local stores to see if they will order them in for you? I know the Wine Kitz in Saint John will.

 

[jim_reaper1066]

Thanks for the imput guys, last night after racking my mead to the secondary I figured whatever, and decided to put on the extract kit without the leftover hops. Trying to put on both batches at the same time might have been too much for my little apartment kitchen.

Iv checked all over Fredericton for hops, Scoop and save used to sell them but they ran out back in october and have no idea when they will get more in due to the supposed hops shortage. Wine kitz is just that, wine kits with a few extract kits and nothing else. Nobel grape is the only place that will order any in, but they seemed expensive and Im looking for a bulk supplier. I might try to switch to all grain in the summer and I heard Picaroons will do bulk grain orders, so I would guess they can order bulk hops as well.

 

[dcp27]

if hops are that sparce there I'd look into freshops.com (probably cheaper anyway) or hopsdirect.com (definitely cheaper anyway)

 

[TipsyDragon]

well i have never heard of anyone doing this, but ... there is theoretically some AA left in the spent hops. i definitely wouldn't boil them longer the second time around. your likely not going to get the same level of hops bitterness out of them the second time around.