Waiting on flameout hops

jmcelher · Jan 30, 2013

Anyone tried to not add hops at flameout but instead do it between 80c to 120c to keep the aromas around more?

sweetcell · Jan 30, 2013

jmcelher said:
80c to 120c

wort boils around 100*C, not sure how you're getting 120...

seriously tho, stopping the chill around 80-82*C and letting hops steep at that temp does great things for aroma. i've done this on IPAs, doing both a true flame-out addition and a 82*C/180*F hot-steep addition. smells amazing.

jmcelher · Jan 30, 2013

Opsss I meant 100-120f. Yea I can see it won't blow off the light aromas.

sweetcell · Jan 30, 2013

i believe, but am not certain, that 100-120*F is too low to be effective. at that point you're probably better off dry-hopping with those hops. you need some heat to effectively get the oils out of the hops in that short a time (that's why dry-hopping takes days, not minutes). what little you'd get with a few minutes at that temp will likely blow off during fermentation.

Gavagai · Jan 31, 2013

There's some misleading information out there. For example, Brad Smith states that the boiling point of Myrcene (which composes the largest proportion of hop oils) is 147F, when in fact it's 167C! (333F) http://beersmith.com/blog/2013/01/21/late-hop-additions-and-hop-oils-in-beer-brewing/ It is true that higher temperatures will increase the rate at which volatile compounds... volatilize, but higher temperatures also increase extraction efficiency. There is a lot of work to be done on hop oil extraction and temperature. As far as I know, there aren't any pro brewers out there who wait for the temperature to drop before adding post-boil hops, but it's a pretty new thing.

jmcelher · Jan 31, 2013

Interesting. I did look up Myrcene and you were right it is at 167C. I think I'm going to try a hop bag and steep it for 20-30 mins at like 150F. And rack it and dry hop later. Just to see.