Smoked hops

[ShizuokaBrad]

Has anyone tried something like this before? I was thinking of cold smoking some hops (pellet and leaf) using sakura wood (Japanese cherry). I'd probably smoke the late addition hops and maybe even the hops I use for dry hopping. Any thoughts on this?

 

[dmtaylor]

I think it's a cool idea. I'm surprised it's not the talk of the town.

One time I was "dehydrating" my homegrown hops in a low temperature oven (around 170 F or whatever), and left them in too long. Some of them got burnt. I contemplated using them in a beer, but ended up tossing them. But, smoking them on purpose.... that's got to be worth a try I would think.

 

[Double_D]

Oxidation maybe, dependant on you cold smoking time/temp. I hate to assume but my guess is that you want to cold smoke to lessen the effects of heat oxidation?

My question is why not just smoke your malt like everyone else?

 

[ShizuokaBrad]

I do smoke malt. I was just thinking about trying something different and was wondering if anyone else has tried it.

 

[tagillis]

I say give it a shot! I've had smoked tea leaves and smoked malt before but never smoked hops. I would think you'd definitely want to go with a low temp. Too high of a heat and the volatile oils will degrade and evaporate much faster.

Do you have a variety and/or recipe in mind? Just a thought- try smoking a few varieties at different temps and exposure lengths and then dryhop a pack of coors light with a little of each. That would help you hone in on how time and temp impact final flavor.

 

[SpeedYellow]

There's nothing to be gained by smoking hops versus smoking grains. It's not like you're going to create some new flavor -- you're just going to get hops and smoke if you're lucky.

Then there's the issue of how to get the hops to actually absorb the smoke flavor. You need moisture for this.

Then the issue of hop flavor just generally not pairing well with smoke.

Give it a shot if you're curious but realistically you can't expect much.

 

[GVH_Dan]

I swear this has been discussed before but I can't find it. Only 2 guys tried it. 1 swore by it and the other claimed it did nothing. General consensus was with the latter.

If you think about it, smoking would add heat (bad for preserving oils/aroma/etc) and a little smoke flavor but probably not enough to be noticed.

On the other hand, what's it going to hurt. I agree with Tagillis. Make a tea or mix some in with a bland beer to see what it will taste like.

Stranger things have been done with hops. May neighbor's grandfather used to dry hops by layering them between straw and manure. I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish but I guess the guy was a prohibition whiskey runner, so it must have had something to do with that.

 

[lowtones84]

Do it. There are a few threads linked in the "similar threads" at the bottom of this page, actually, and it seems like it's at least worth a try to me.

 

[tagillis]

Stranger things have been done with hops. May neighbor's grandfather used to dry hops by layering them between straw and manure.

I guess that's one way of adding grassy, earthy flavors to your brew!

 

[radwizard]

I think you should try it out. I would try them out in a massive dry hop. You may get interesting aromas there.

 

[haslips]

I know this is late to the game, but I’ve been experimenting with smoked hops for years... I have an established hop crown on the side of my house that produces about 2 lbs of fresh hops per year. Typically, on Havest Day, one Lb goes into a 10 gallon batch of a fresh hop beer, meanwhile i place the other Lb into perforated aluminum tins, and place them in my pellet smoker. I used to use hickory pellets, but found that the “flavor” of the pellet does not represent well, so now i just use genaric. @ 150 degrees, it takes about an hour to dry to the proper moisture content. 1 pound fresh hops will result in about 4 ounces . I then bag and freeze in 1 ounce bags. I find you need to use a high malt component and even a sweet components such as honey to balance the smoke. Think amber or red ales. Dryhopping with one ounce to a 5 gallon batch for about 3 to 4 days provides very nice but subtle smoke flavor that presents on the backend rather than the front end like a smoked malt beer does. I’ve also experimented with adding smoked hops during the whirlpool of darker beers like porters and stouts. You’ll need up the volume 2 to 4 ounces to a 5 gallon batch to get the right smoke element. Smoking dried whole cone hops aslo works, but you’ll need to up the smoke time to about 3 hours. I recently gave a seminar on this topic at the 2018 HomebrewCon in PDX. If you are an AHA member, you will soon be able to access this on the AHA website. If you have any additional questions please feel free to contact me at [email protected]

 

[FunkedOut]

Stranger things have been done with hops. May neighbor's grandfather used to dry hops by layering them between straw and manure. I'm not sure what he was trying to accomplish but I guess the guy was a prohibition whiskey runner, so it must have had something to do with that.

Now that’s good ****!

Makes sense to use the hay to keep the **** off the hops.
The **** generates heat as it decomposes, so that was the heat source.
I’d use an alternative heat source if available, but in a pinch...
(^ pun intended)

 

[afksports]

Bumping this thread back up -- @haslips I shot you an email but it bounced back. Do you have updated contact info you could pm me? Would love to ask you a few questions!

 

[haslips]

Bumping this thread back up -- @haslips I shot you an email but it bounced back. Do you have updated contact info you could pm me? Would love to ask you a few questions!

My Bad..... [email protected]

 

[cactusgarrett]

A local joint here does a smoked hop ale.
http://rockhoundbrewing.com/our-beers
Near the bottom: Campfire Stores and Burning Embers.