Thoughts on squeezing beer out of dry hops?

[jbaysurfer]

JB - the way I "tested" it was this:

Pulled out the bag (w/o squeezing) and kept it in a sanitized bowl. Started bottling my batch as normal. When I had a gallon left, I added some of the squeezed bag juice to it. Finished carbing & tasted side by side.

Done it a few different times, and liked the unsqueezed version better. Unscientific with small sample size, but that's what I found. Give it a go and see what you like.

I keg unfortunately, but I could do the same and pour a pint into a glass before squeezing, then squeeze afterward, but then if you're right, I'd have screwed up the larger batch. I guess I could just pour 2 pints, both before I pull the bag without squeezing and add a bit of the hop juice to one of the glasses...

Edit: FWIW, I've only squeezed the hop bag twice, and I'm now drinking some of the most recent batch. It has cleared up, but it doesn't taste as good as it did before I squeezed the bag. Thanks for the info...maybe I'll manage not to screw up another batch by knowing this....

 

[TyTanium]

If you do any experimentation with it, please post. The more I learn about hops, the less I have a clue. Surprising plants.

 

[CTR08]

My thoughts- use the gyle you get to prime maybe

 

[Gavagai]

JB - the way I "tested" it was this:

Pulled out the bag (w/o squeezing) and kept it in a sanitized bowl. Started bottling my batch as normal. When I had a gallon left, I added some of the squeezed bag juice to it. Finished carbing & tasted side by side.

Done it a few different times, and liked the unsqueezed version better. Unscientific with small sample size, but that's what I found. Give it a go and see what you like.

Edit: Also, the squeezing didn't give me that much more, maybe 8-12 oz max.

This is a much better test. It does make me wonder, though, why we don't get the same kinds of off-flavors from using pellet hops.

 

[TyTanium]

...It does make me wonder, though, why we don't get the same kinds of off-flavors from using pellet hops.

That's a great question. Don't know. I'll have to think about that one.

 

[kingwood-kid]

We all seem to expend great effort to emulate the hopping rates and practices of leading-edge commercial brewers. Never once in any of these threads or clone recipes have I seen discussed whether or not those breweries wring out the hops used at various points in the brewing process. As heavily as they hop in the boil, at whirlpool and in the fermenter, the wort losses could be pretty staggering when brewing on that scale. Anyone know what they do?

 

[lstrowge]

I have heard of using a centrifuge to "wring" out the hops to gain efficiency in the highly hopped brews. In fact I read somewhere that one of the major craft breweries was going to start because of the losses. However they are working with much larger volumes than a homebrewer so what are we actually gaining by doing so? I have squeezed and just thrown it out without squeezing. I didn't think it made the beer taste bad by any means but it probably wasn't as good as it could have been. One beer that i did squeeze the hops out got a second place in a local competition and it was clear as can be after 3 weeks in the keg (Amarillo Pale Ale)

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

I'm still torn, do it...don't do it. I guess I'll see how much volume I lose in each fermenter, if its negligeable, I'll leave it alone.

 

[DirtyOldDuck]

I use sanitized togs to gently squeeze the liquid out of my hop bag. I have never ruined a beer with harsh flavors from this. Of course, I don't stand on the bag and try to get every drop of liquid out. No problems with oxidation either.

This thread has made me curious, however. For those who just throw the hop bag into the keg, wouldn't this add the same concentrated hop/beer mixture to the finished beer? Even more, in fact? I don't see anyone saying this will add a harsh taste to the beer. Why would squeezing some of the beer out of a hop bag (which would then be diluted into 5 or 10 gallons of beer) ruin a batch, but throwing the whole hop bag in the keg wouldn't?

 

[Schnitzengiggle]

Alright, I kegged the 10g's earlier tonight, and I did not squeeze.

I thought it was interesting though....One variety (Belma) which had much larger cones than the Citra returned a lesser volume. Even though both batches were nearly identical, the larger cones seemed to suck more juice out of the batch.

Prelim tasting notes:
Citra IPA - nice tropical nose, quite bitter in the back end, overall flavor is mellow.
(I'm hoping the carbonation makes the difference in this beer.)

Belma IPA - Strange aroma. Smells very earthy, but upon tasting the brew has a slight berry (strawberry?) flavor. similar to the Citra it is bitter on the back end, but the flavor is quite mellow. I hope the carbonation provides whats missing.