Using hops twice

[titleist]

Anyone ever do last minute hop additions then freeze and reuse the same hops in late fermentation?

Was just wondering if anyone's tried this or if there's nothing left of the oils after the quick hot dip, that and if freezing them and reading them later again would add anything more to the aroma.

Also thought maybe it'd be best of both worlds with sanitizing the hops before dry hopping, either pellet or fresh.

 

[sweetcell]

most of the good stuff will be washed out. the oils that contribute aroma and flavor are leeched quickly. you won't gain much, if anything, by re-using.

if you want to do this to save money, i suggest buying hops by the pound instead. comes out cheaper, so you don't worry as much about using new hops for dry-hopping... which leads to beer that actually tastes like hops

no need to sanitize hops. they're naturally anti-bacterial (that's why early brewers added them to beer), and the beer itself contains alcohol and is at a low pH - two things that inhibit nasties.

 

[Zepth]

I did my best to get the most out of some hops on my last batches. I almost always parti gyle these days to get the most from my grains and not waste, being unable to boil down volumes also contributes to this method being useful to ensure a good overall efficiency.

Like many batches, the first one I made had a handful of different hop additions, including a semi-major (30%) in the last 5 minutes of the boil. My thought was that if a longer boil will extract more bitterness from the hops, the used ones may not have much flavour left to give but still some IBUs. So after chilling and transferring it to the fermenter, science and experimentation began.

I didn't bother rinsing the kettle or getting that bit of cold break out of the bottom. It'll be boiled again, and whirlpooled again, just leave it kicking around for the time being. After all, I do want to try and salvage what I can for the hops. Next I sparged to get my boil volume, added it right ontop of the cold break and presumable barely used hop matter. Using this as my bittering hops on a lower OG beer? I don't yet have the answer. FG numbers are where I'd expected them to end up at and it looks like I'll be bottling this evening or tomorrow afternoon. Hydrometer sample was promising.

 

[titleist]

so even hop backing takes out most of the aroma then.

yah that was my thought, save a bit of cash by reusing, not wasting if I could help it. I did see some folks talking about bittering with used hops but I'd be more concerned with correct bitterness than aroma in an experimental batch.

Thanks guys

 

[cjgenever]

I reuse dryhops in my iipa where I'm going for more ibu than I can get. It can't hurt anything there. I am hesitant reusing hops elsewhere because ibu calculations become a guess.

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