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Don't soak your hops in boiling water - just simply add the hops direct to your fermenter after primary ferment finishes, or if you transfer to secondary, add them to the secondary at the same time. Leave at least 5 days then bottle as usual. The most important thing though is getting FRESH hops, stale hops will totaly ruin your beer - So many beers end up tasting "grassy" or "carboardy" after adding substandard hops, this is especially prevalent when making lagers.

cheers Ross

Ross wrote:Don't soak your hops in boiling water - just simply add the hops direct to your fermenter after primary ferment finishes, or if you transfer to secondary, add them to the secondary at the same time. Leave at least 5 days then bottle as usual.

I wouldn't really call that "priming" hops.

chris. wrote:

Ross wrote:Don't soak your hops in boiling water - just simply add the hops direct to your fermenter after primary ferment finishes, or if you transfer to secondary, add them to the secondary at the same time. Leave at least 5 days then bottle as usual.

I wouldn't really call that "priming" hops.

Will give a far better result than steeping pellets in boiling water & adding to priming bucket. Boiling water doesn't bring out the best in the hop, it's not good practice. What I advised is just as much "priming hops" as any other suggestion here, short of adding the hops to the bottles, which isn't practical.

cheers Ross

I think everyone agrees dry hopping in the secondary is a good practise, however I began the thread to discuss the benefits of hopping at the bottling or priming stage.

If you hop at the priming or bottling stage you can hop 'to taste' and that's what appeals to me.

By the sound of things putting a cone into a bottle delivers a good result, and I have heard of some brewers adding hops straight to the keg and racking into the keg onto the hop juice.

I'm with you Pale Ale, a plunger full of hop tea added to the priming barrel would work a treat.

Ross wrote: Will give a far better result than steeping pellets in boiling water & adding to priming bucket.

More than likely a valid point

Ross wrote: Boiling water doesn't bring out the best in the hop, it's not good practice.

More than likely another valid point

Ross wrote: What I advised is just as much "priming hops" as any other suggestion here, short of adding the hops to the bottles, which isn't practical.

Sorry Ross but I disagree on this one. I personally am not a big fan of dry hopping. I find it a waste the times that I have tried it. I have used up to 280g in one dry hop addition (admittedly in an IIPA) & didn't really find much difference in the aroma. I think it may be a differend story dry hopping under pressure but believe most HBers don't do this.

FWIW the hop cone in the bottle is a bit of a PITA (about as much as using carb drops) but I find the results are much better than any the results of I've had with dry hopping.

chris. wrote:
Sorry Ross but I disagree on this one. I personally am not a big fan of dry hopping. I find it a waste the times that I have tried it. I have used up to 280g in one dry hop addition (admittedly in an IIPA) & didn't really find much difference in the aroma.

.

Chris, don't know what you were doing wrong, maybe stale hops? But dry hopping with "fresh" aromatic hops makes a world of difference.

cheers Ross

Pale_Ale wrote:I think everyone agrees dry hopping in the secondary is a good practise, however I began the thread to discuss the benefits of hopping at the bottling or priming stage.
.

Pale Ale,


So what difference do you think adding to the priming bucket makes against adding to secondary - both exactly the same, just a few days apart?? Using boiling water to extract hop flavour will give poor results, try taking a taste of it if you don't believe me. Sounds like you'd be better getting some isohop & adding that to your bottles - pure hop oil with no bits

cheers Ross

Ross wrote:

chris. wrote:
Sorry Ross but I disagree on this one. I personally am not a big fan of dry hopping. I find it a waste the times that I have tried it. I have used up to 280g in one dry hop addition (admittedly in an IIPA) & didn't really find much difference in the aroma.

.

Chris, don't know what you were doing wrong, maybe stale hops? But dry hopping with "fresh" aromatic hops makes a world of difference.

cheers Ross

Ross,

Neither do I
Like I mentioned, the beer that helped make my decision to lay off dry hopping (atleast until I get kegs) was a double IPA. & I am aware that it's probably not the best example to try & detect the affects of dry hopping. But I have tried it many times in the past & have felt a little ripped off when comparing the results with the amount of hops I'm using.

I can assure you (read: You can assure me ) that the hops were fresh. You will receive no complaints from me regarding their performance in the boil. especially for flavour & aroma additions yum... quality hops
Like you mention it may be my process (racking onto them for 5days)

I do agree with you on the carboardy, grassy, flavours from old hops. I'm currently about to pour a recent Pils of mine down the sink because of it. I stupidly thought I'd use up some left over saaz, that had been sitting in my freezer for 12mths or so, late in the boil. Bad decision. Taste was bearable young but with a bit of age the aroma & flavour has turned a little flat but also tastes stale.

I recall hearing a brewer in a BN podcast comment on the effects of dry hopping under pressure (ie. no blow off or airlock) being a lot more effective compared to examples produced without the ferment being capped. But I don't recall the episode
I am interested in giving it a try. Have you tried tried it Ross? any thoughts on the outcome?

Cheers

BTW I suggest you give the cone in the bottle at bottling (if you still bottle any) a go if you can. I am really impressed with the result. Worth a try IMO.

chris. wrote:
I recall hearing a brewer in a BN podcast comment on the effects of dry hopping under pressure (ie. no blow off or airlock) being a lot more effective compared to examples produced without the ferment being capped. But I don't recall the episode
I am interested in giving it a try. Have you tried tried it Ross? any thoughts on the outcome?

Cheers

BTW I suggest you give the cone in the bottle at bottling (if you still bottle any) a go if you can. I am really impressed with the result. Worth a try IMO.

Hi Chris,

No, I haven't tried hopping under pressure - yeast doesn't like being under pressure, & the aroma being driven off is one of the reasons i don't dry hop during primary ferment, that & the krausen lifting the hops out of the brew. I guess it would possibly retain more of the wort aroma though under pressure - interesting
Haven't tried the hop cone in the bottle as very rarely bottle these days (might give it a go one day though), but i have used a "randall" where you pass the kegged beer through a mass of hop flowers on the way to the glass. Got a 200+IBU APA in primary at the moment & planning an R+ APA shortly, using a kilo of 18+ american hop varieties. So yes, i do love my hops

cheers Ross

Ross wrote:Hi Chris,

No, I haven't tried hopping under pressure - yeast doesn't like being under pressure, & the aroma being driven off is one of the reasons i don't dry hop during primary ferment, that & the krausen lifting the hops out of the brew. I guess it would possibly retain more of the wort aroma though under pressure - interesting
Haven't tried the hop cone in the bottle as very rarely bottle these days (might give it a go one day though), but i have used a "randall" where you pass the kegged beer through a mass of hop flowers on the way to the glass. Got a 200+IBU APA in primary at the moment & planning an R+ APA shortly, using a kilo of 18+ american hop varieties. So yes, i do love my hops

cheers Ross

At the later stage of fermentation I don't really think the pressure would affect the yeast as it would in the earlier stages of fermentation. I would assume this because after all yeast can still perform under pressure as evidenced in bottle conditioning.
It is an interesting theory & I too believe that the capping of the ferment would help the beer absorb more aroma compounds than simply blowing it out the airlock.
Ah the Randall strip the enamel right off your teeth it will!

Hey just out of interest wouldn't a 200+ IBU APA technically just be an Imperial IPA? what is the expected differences between the 2 styles?

Hi Ross,

The taste difference between dry hopping in the secondary and using 'priming hops' is not well-explored by me, which is why I started the thread in the hope of gleaning some new information

From my perspective the expected differences of using priming hops would be:

1) the ability to add hops 'to taste' at time of bottling (which could include bittering or flavour too)

2) Where the hop cone is inserted into a bottle, the source of the flavour remains in the bottle for the bottle conditioning period

3) Often I hear people say that the hop flavour is swallowed up by the beer between pitching and bottling...whether this is true or not I know a few people who hop straight into kegs and are very happy with this method. The same thing could be achieved by adding hopjuice when bulk priming then bottling I guess.

chris. wrote:
Hey just out of interest wouldn't a 200+ IBU APA technically just be an Imperial IPA? what is the expected differences between the 2 styles?

Chris, I usually call it an Imperial IPA/APA, I don't think there's any real difference in the styles, same thing with slightly different name that's all. Mines brewed to 9.5% alc, so boardering on a barley wine as much as anything.

cheers Ross

I tried this the other day following this thread. I got a quarter of a pellet and stuck it in a schooner glass of tooheys new. It was a tetenenger or something, any way it turned a boring thirst quencher ino a real winner. It's worth a try.

Just filter it with your teeth

Jub

JubJub wrote:...Just filter it with your teeth

Nah, eat your greens.

Cheers,
Greg