Saturday, January 3, 2015

Bittering Hops in 15 Minutes

In case you wanted to isomerize alpha acids six times faster here is how to do it.  The full article is on Home Brew Talk here:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/bittering-hops-in-15-minutes.html

18 comments:

  1. Very interesting from an extract brewing viewpoint Steven.
    No chance of extraction saturation when upping the quantities... Nice!
    Any comment on the aroma outcome of the extract?
    I cant work out if you FWH or added to boiling water... If that would make any difference.... Probably not without the wort reactions.
    Might try an extract brew one day.

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    1. Thanks! The bittering hops were added to a couple of cups of water and cooked in the pressure cooker for 11 minutes. meanwhile I cooked the flavor hops in a sauce pan for about the same amount of time. Flavor Hops were added at flame out. A second sauce pan was used for the steeping grains. It's a busy 15 minutes. It feels more like cooking that brewing, but I like the activity.

      The dry malt extract was added directly to the fermentor.

      The beers I have done this way have all come out great. Better than most of my all-grain beers.

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  2. OK Steve, here's the deal. I'm bursting to try some of your ideas, just ordered the book. Here's the deal. I do 2.5 gallon batches biab. I always mash out for 10m around 168. Is there some way I could use the grains to add complexity, mouth feel and color to a 15 minute batch? Like a partigyle? I'm sure others would want to know too.

    Also could I just boil my biab wort for 15m? By using my pressure cooker for my bittering hops

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    1. Thanks for your support. That's about the same size BIAB that I typically do! A 15 minute boil would be sufficient to sanitize the wort. My only concern would be if you are using pilsner malt. It may not be long enough to remove a sufficient amount of DMS.

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  3. And I'd love to hear your thoughts on my grain rinse idea for the extract batch. Basically, I'm going to do a big 2.5 g and a medium og extract 5 gallon. Thought I'd sparge the grains into the kettle for the extract then proceed as normal for the 15 min method

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    1. That sounds like a solid way to incorporate a partial mash into a 15 minute boil. I normally just use a small amount of water, the hops, and a drop of fermcap in the pressure cooker. Foaming could be a issue with wort. If you have every cooked beans in a pressure cooker and forgot to add a little oil wort could create a similar experience.

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  4. Thanks. Looking forward to my double brew day and the arrival of your book. I'll keep you posted really the short boil mixed with my crazy ideas.

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  5. Could you post a recipe using this method? I'm eager to try it myself.

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    1. Sure Andy, Any 60 minute extract with steeping grain recipe can be converted to a 15 minute recipe by using a pressure cooker for 11 minutes of what would normally be the 60 minute addition. The flavor hops can be bittered in a sauce pan. (More details soon. I'm almost done with the procedural post.)

      Most recently I made something I'm calling a Belgian Brown with this method:
      1.5 gallon batch.
      3 lbs Briess Bavarian Wheat DME (directly to the fermentor)
      4.8 oz CaraMunich, 1.6 oz Biscuit (steeped in sauce pan)

      (These hops are just what I had. 25 IBU target)
      0.4oz Challenger Hops (11 minutes in a pressure cooker)
      0.6 oz Challenger Hops (11 minutes in a sauce pan)
      0.1oz Nugget whole hops (added to sauce pan at flame out)

      Yeast: S-33

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  6. I think I'll wait for the procedural post before attempting this. I'm looking forward to it.

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  7. Is there a significant difference between hop lautering and putting all the hop debris in the fermenter and shake aerating?

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    1. That's a good question. There is likely a difference, but I'm not sure if it would be significant. Based on simple kinematics I would guess that it might make a small difference, but would be surprised if the resulting beer was perceived as more bitter.

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  8. I made a simple extract batch and it didn't turn out well, but I believe it was due to reasons not related to the methodology.
    Quick question though: how would you incorporate a yeast nutrient and Whirfloc addition? The instructions say to add at 10 and 15 minutes left in the boil, but obviously I'm trying to avoid boiling for 15 minutes if it isn't necessary.
    With LME, I'm adding it at flameout. I assume this shouldn't be a problem although it forces me to do a minor, low volume wort chill.

    Thanks again

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    1. Adding at flame out would be fine. If you want a little more assurance of sanitization you can bring the pot back up to a boil after depressurizing.

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  9. What do you recommend for yeast nutrient and Whirfloc? I don't believe they can be added at flameout.

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    1. I don't really have a preference, but the ones I have used, the manufacturer recommends adding with 5 minutes left in the boil.

      http://www.midwestsupplies.com/whirlfloc-tablets-10-tablets.html

      For yeast Nutrient I use diammonium phosphate which isn't affected by boiling, but I would be surprised if you had adverse effects from boiling any yeast nutrient.

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  10. Do you count the ten mins. in the pressure cooker from the time it goes to 15 lbs of pressure or from the time the boil starts? It takes a bit of time for the system to come up to 15 lbs of pressure. Thanks and regards!

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    1. 10 minutes from when it reaches pressure. My calculations show that 11 minutes at 15lbs is equivalent to an hour at 1 atmosphere, so 10 minutes at 15lbs plus some heat up and cool down time should get you pretty close.

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