Reusing hops

[ballantyne]

Hi everyone,
I am new to the board, so I hope I'm not wasting anyone's time with this question..

I have used some hop pellets for dry hopping late in the ferment. I'm thinking I can now reuse these hops as bittering hops by boiling them?

Is this right?

[barls]

no you have already extracted some of the oils needed

[Oliver]

I am new to the board, so I hope I'm not wasting anyone's time with this question.

Welcome to the forum, ballantyne.

Don't be worried about wasting anyone's time. Everyone's more than willing to help out. Just make sure you have a read of the stickies at the top of the Making Beer forum because many of the more common questions are answered there.

And remember, there's no such thing as a stupid question (well, almost no such thing )

Barls is correct though. Do not reuse the hops.

Cheers,

Oliver

[ballantyne]

Thanks for your response. "Some" of the oils you say. So if we knew how much we could reuse?

[drsmurto]

Short answer is no.

The longer answer is maybe. The alpha acids are not highly soluble so take time to dissolve. How fast they dissolve will depend on a number of variables; type of hop (pellet, plug or flower), temperature of beer, alcohol content of beer, alpha acids and iso-alpha acid content of beer, pH. Time will obviously be a big factor.

At best it's a guess but yes, there is likely to be some alpha acids remain.

The point I would make is that the bittering addition is the most important in brewing when it comes to knowing the IBU. Why would you guess?

[ballantyne]

Yes, I can see that the uncertainty would be a problem. Thanks everyone for your thoughts.

[jello]

I just wouldn't.

[dhostetter]

I just wouldn't.

+1