Just Using The Inside of Fresh Hops for Dry Hopping

[jglazer]

I have some home grown cascade hops ready to be picked and I have a beer ready to be dry hopped. I will only be dry hopping about 2 gallons of beer and I have a TON of cascade hops on the bine right now. I was thinking about making a few slices and dices on the hops and throwing the middles into the fermenter and leaving the outer leaves out.

Now before you say this is a waste, I know its a waste. But that aside, I want to get a really good and intense cascade flavor from my home grown hops but I want to try and avoid getting that grassy flavor. Being in NC with warm nights, homegrown hops already tend to be grassier, so I am trying to improve the flavor any way I can. I also dont care about time, I am an expert with the cutting knives so an hour or two wouldn't bother me.

So anyone have experience doing this? Anyone have opinions whether it would work or not. Please no lectures about it being wasteful or time consuming as those aren't my concerns. Thanks!

 

[Denny]

It's not about wasteful. It's about expending effort without a viable reward. What on earth makes you think it would be better, let alone different?

 

[jglazer]

I assume you get a lot of the grassy flavors when all the moisture in the green leaves gets extracted into the beer, but if I try and concentrate it to only the middle where the sticky yellowness is, then I would extract a lot less of the moisture from the green leaves, thus maybe preventing some green taste

 

[Denny]

I assume you get a lot of the grassy flavors when all the moisture in the green leaves gets extracted into the beer, but if I try and concentrate it to only the middle where the sticky yellowness is, then I would extract a lot less of the moisture from the green leaves, thus maybe preventing some green taste

I'm not certain your assumption is valid.

 

[Nightshade]

I assume you get a lot of the grassy flavors when all the moisture in the green leaves gets extracted into the beer, but if I try and concentrate it to only the middle where the sticky yellowness is, then I would extract a lot less of the moisture from the green leaves, thus maybe preventing some green taste

Seems to me that if this were the case then the industry would have developed a process for "husking" hops instead of using them as a whole.

 

[jglazer]

Well I think when you dry our the hops, this becomes irrelevant. There also may not be a financial advantage on a large scale. I was just trying to think on a micro scale with homegrown hops that I know are going to be a little grassy. What I should really do is split 2 gallons into a 1 gallon jug each and try husking 1 gallon and not the other.

Anyways, this was just a thought with no scientific backing. I was just hoping someone actually tried it once and had some insight.

 

[Fathand]

You are extracting the oils from the hops so cutting them up won't do anything for you. Just throw them in.

A few things to keep in mind.

1 You need to use them within 24 hours, or you have to dry them and then store them in your fridge or freezer after you pick them

2 If you do use the fresh picked hops (they are called wet hops at this point) then you need a ratio of 5:1 (wet:dry). So if your recipe calls for 2 oz then you will need 10 oz of wet hops

3 The hops will soak up some of your beer so be prepared for that. I have heard conflicting info on whether you should squeeze them or not

 

[jglazer]

Are the oils that I am looking to extract evenly distributed throughout the entire cone, or are the oils concentrated in the middle of the cone where all of that yellow stickiness is? I was hopping remove most of the green leaves of the cones and only include the middles where most of the yellow stuff is. I am assuming this will waste some of the oils I want, but I have plenty of fresh hops to work with.

 

[Nightshade]

Well I think when you dry our the hops, this becomes irrelevant. There also may not be a financial advantage on a large scale. I was just trying to think on a micro scale with homegrown hops that I know are going to be a little grassy. What I should really do is split 2 gallons into a 1 gallon jug each and try husking 1 gallon and not the other.

Anyways, this was just a thought with no scientific backing. I was just hoping someone actually tried it once and had some insight.

Give it a shot and report back, it may have some merit and it may not but either way the results should prove interesting.

 

[Braufessor]

I see what you are saying.... yes - the oils are more central in the cone as opposed to out at the tip of the leaves.

Potential up side - less "leaf" to soak up beer. less leaf to give "grassy" taste.

No idea if there is any basis in fact to this premise, but I can see where you are coming from.

I say divide it up and do it two different ways to see if you can tell the difference.

 

[TyTanium]

"Fresh to the Core" IPA