30oz of hops for a 5gal batch

[rafaelpinto]

Hey guys,

Im thinking about brewing a insanely hopped beer as an experiment. I know people talk about a point where more hops wont mean more flavor and aroma, but I wanna try it anyway.

My plan is to use 10oz on late hopping, 10oz on a hop stand and 10oz on dry hopping.

How does it sound? Bad idea? Any exepiment like that was ever made?

 

[insanim8er]

Sounds like a waste to me

And you're not the first to think of it...

Here's one from just a few days ago

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/too-many-hops-476104/

 

[TastyAdventure]

Not to mention you would lose ALOT of volume from hops absorbing beer. Seriously, just don't.


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[MaxStout]

If you have 30 oz. of hops burning a hole in your pocket, you are free to send it my way.

 

[Chug]

I did a Surly Furious clone with 8.5 oz of dry hops once. Not only do I feel it was completely unnecessary, I swear it gave it an unwanted sweetness.

 

[MrCrabby]

Try adding a hop extract instead.

 

[grathan]

I think it might taste good, but if your throwing random hops at a random recipe, it probably won't taste good. You should build your recipe starting with smaller amounts, or perhaps try a recipe you think will scale up well.

I think I've done 24oz and thought it could use more, but I found I didn't care for the ctz and it ended up being a waste.
You also can experience oxidation fairly easy with large dry hop amounts and grasiness can come into play as well.

 

[hlm123]

I want to reiterate that recipe is key. Designing a recipe (and fermentation) that will allow the hops to shine will do more for you than throwing in a greater quantity of hops. My first question would be what you want to test with this experiment.

 

[jammin]

Yes, it will be a waste. By waste I mean it will taste like a monstrosity

 

[seabass07]

Yes, it will be a waste. By waste I mean it will taste like a monstrosity

Says someone who likely hasn't used excessive late addition hops. It's a waste, but can be good if done right.

 

[Calichusetts]

If you need more than 20 oz to get a commercial level hop bomb, something is off. Even that amount is pretty high, but 50% more? Sounds like you have a problem with your water, hop schedule or something else if you need that much to get to the "over-the-top" status.

I know you said it was an experiment, but for what purpose? It its to make is super hoppy, even half that amount should get you there.

 

[rafaelpinto]

I did a Surly Furious clone with 8.5 oz of dry hops once. Not only do I feel it was completely unnecessary, I swear it gave it an unwanted sweetness.

Sweetness? Howcome!? How was the taste of it?

 

[rafaelpinto]

Says someone who likely hasn't used excessive late addition hops. It's a waste, but can be good if done right.

You mean using hop bags, right?

 

[zwiller]

Man, a few years ago I posted an IPA recipe with 1lb of hops and guys freaked...

Give it 6 more oz so you can say 3lbs! Scale recipe to 6.5G for losses due to hop material.

That said, I agree with calichussetts that 20oz or so is the upper limit and I think it is very much diminishing returns after that.

 

[seabass07]

You mean using hop bags, right?

Strain the wort with a voile bag and squeeze it to get your hop juice out. Works great.

 

[Dirty25]

I have a lot of 2012 hops left over so I recently did a "challenge IPA". (My friend is very process driven brewer and I'm very experimental so he challenges me to make a IPA by throwing hops at a wort sort of). So I brewed up a freezer cleaner of a batch. I ended up using 18oz in the batch and I only got 2.5-3G into a keg....I don't think 30oz is possible

 

[jammin]

Says someone who likely hasn't used excessive late addition hops. It's a waste, but can be good if done right.

Awesome - please send detailed notes about how it can be "done right". It would be helpful if you could share brew logs for the several beers you have brewed in this manner. Please include specifics about dry hopping with 10+ ounces of dry hops in 5 gallon batches

Cheers
~jammin

 

[dtwhite]

Put all 30oz at the start of a 90 minute boil, then keep the beer around to blend with other beers that didn't turn out as bitter as you wanted.

 

[seabass07]

Awesome - please send detailed notes about how it can be "done right". It would be helpful if you could share brew logs for the several beers you have brewed in this manner. Please include specifics about dry hopping with 10+ ounces of dry hops in 5 gallon batches

Cheers
~jammin

Oooh sarcasm...once again likely from someone who hasn't had a freezer full of hops to get rid of. I'll gladly help people that want it here and try to keep them from making mistakes. If someone was buying the hops specifically for this beer, then it's their bank account, not mine. I've only done things like this when hops were starting to get old in my freezer. So dumping ****tons of hops in vs trashing them? I think I'll put them in my beer.

30oz is extreme and if it's in a 5 gal batch, you'll end up with maybe 3.5gal. So plan for it by keeping it all in late additions and planning for those losses. Strain out the kettle hops with a voille bag and squeeze the bag to get as much beer back as you can. If all of the kettle additions are at flameout, it won't be overly bitter. I've personally put 10oz of dryhops in without a bag. I strained out all of the kettle additions though, so it wasn't that bad. The beer turned out great actually! Make a 7gal batch so you end up with 5 gallons in the end. Don't knock it until you try it.

Diminishing returns blah blah. Yea, it's not worth the money for all of those hops for the result you'll get. But experimenting is fun.

 

[WayFrae]

Give it 6 more oz so you can say 3lbs! Scale recipe to 6.5G for losses due to hop material.

He would actually need to add 18 oz to make it 3 lbs. But if he added 2 oz he could at least call it 2 lbs! :cross:

 

[zwiller]

He would actually need to add 18 oz to make it 3 lbs. But if he added 2 oz he could at least call it 2 lbs! :cross:

That's what I get for doing math before the coffee kicks in...

For the record, I assumed we were talking hop pellets. There should be no problems getting 5G to the keg with pellets. Now if we are talking whole cones, forget about it...