Re-using aroma hops (whole)

Question

Re-using aroma hops (whole)

Mr_road

2016年4月5日 13:23

OK I may be called crazy, and it won't be the first time but hear me out please.

I am wondering if anyone has tried what I am about to suggest and if so what were the results?

Could one reduce the cost of hops by taking the whole hops(not pellets) used for Aroma in batch A (in a hop bag or in the hop back), and use them for bittering in brew B.

As if boiled for 60 min they would lose all their aroma, so letting that go into the first brew is not an issue. And, being only in the boil A for ~5 min, would only isomerise and extract about 12% of the potential IBUs. Which means I would be wasting the other 80% I could realistically extract (allowing for~8% I will never get out).

it is just that often I am adding 14% AA hops to get their lovely aroma and then chucking them, which seems like a huge waste if I could have bittered a second batch with them. Especially given how much energy and water are required to grow hops in the first place.

Topic hop-utilization ibu hops homebrew efficiency

Category Mac

Evil Zymurgist · Accepted Answer · 2016年4月3日 15:16

This would me much like reusing a tea bag or coffee grounds.

There's not much of anything useful left in hops after a couple minutes in a boil.

Pulling out hops does little to halt bittering since most the oils are now in the boil, and will continue to isomerize the alpha acids. This is why temperatures above 175° count as "boil time".

Since the proposed use is to use spent aroma hops as a bittering hops for a second batch. Your left with a huge unknown of the IBU potential of the hop. This may suffice for a mystery parti-gyle batch, but nothing your trying to hit style guidlines on.

I can't help but feel that this question was born from a flawed brewing method I see all to offten. improper hop bagging. If your hop bag looks like a hard baseball when it's wet then your hops are not getting the wort exposure for full extraction, it would be easy to smell and taste the hops from a bag like this and feel they are still useful. In fact they are, because the didn't get used on the first boil. hop bag, in the boil should be loose and flowing My rule of thumb when I do use a bag (I prefer no bag) is the bag should lay flat with one layer of hop pellets. A much better hop bag, is a full kettle BIAB bag so additions can go in a free rolling boil.

Mołot · Accepted Answer · 2016年4月3日 10:10

Might be possible, if you are brewing two batches, one just after another.

If you will try to store wet hops, you are giving mold time to grow. Isomerisation continues to occur when hops are hot, so no way to dry them without loses. So then there is freezing, but that's troublesome.

If done fresh, from one brew to another directly, would work, but you would lose some aroma you normally get from leaving it in during cooling (might not be an issue). Also, it would meant boil significantly longer than one hour. Many sources claim bad tastes and aromas like grass etc to appear such conditions. Depends on many factor, mostly on hops you use.

Hint: commercial breweries seems not to do that, and they are all about cutting costs.

Re-using aroma hops (whole)

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