Diy hop extract.

[Frodv]

Hi, I have an idea in my head but I'm not sure it will work, so I'll post it here first to check if anyone else have done something similar.
My idea is to boil my hops that I need for a receipe in a small pot by it self, strain it and put it directly in the fermenter along with the chilled wort.
I am planing on boiling it in a small amount og wort and not water.
I am also wondering if this "hop extract" can be pre made and put in the freezer for to be used in later brews.

Any thoughts??

 

[BrewInspector]

Yes this or a variation of it has been done and discussed.

Unfortunately I don't recall the discussion(s) and I don't think it works out as well as you might expect.

I'm sure one of the hoptologists will come in with details of the how and why

 

[Frodv]

Anyone else have any thoughts??

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It depends a bit on your objectives - why are you doing this? Are you intending to do this for bittering hops or flavour/aroma additions? It can kinda work for bittering but to be honest you might as well save yourself the work and buy alpha extract, it works out about the same ££/$$/€€-wise.

It's more problematic for late additions as you're dealing with volatile aroma compounds that are easily lost the more processing you do. Also, you're normally boiling the wort for a bit anyway, so you don't really gain anything from making the process more complicated than throwing hops in the boil for a short time.

Unless of course you're not boiling the wort.

So generally this falls into as "possible, but generally a bit inefficient unless you're doing something like no-boil beer"

 

[Frodv]

The main reason for doing this is to avoid clogging my plate chiller. It happens every time, and I am sick of it.
I know many brewers dump everything from the boil kettle into the fermenter (hops/trub) and don’t have any problems. My idea is to do that, except I boil the hops in another pot so I can run the main wort through the plate chiller without risking it clogging.

 

[Homergah]

I believe @PianoMan does something similar on his no boil brews. Search "no boil @PianoMan" maybe something will come up.

 

[Frodv]

The thing is, I am going to boil my brew. It needs to be boiled to get rid of dms and such... the problem is that I can’t have other things in the boil kettle that can clog my chiller.

Thanks for the tip anyway, I will check it out

 

[Homergah]

It is still relevant. He boils the hop additions separately from the wort. I believe he then adds the hop tea to the wort.

 

[Frodv]

I had a quick peek at it, and it looks like his receipes are all DME. I only brew all grain, so I don’t think he has to worry about dms...
But I see your point regarding the hops

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It sounds like you need to be looking at filters - you'd be better off over on the equipment forum....

 

[crane]

Why not use one of the different methods others use to keep hops out of their plate chiller? Seems like you are not solving the real problem. You could put your hops in bags, buy/build a hop spider, or whirlpooling.

 

[Frodv]

Why not use one of the different methods others use to keep hops out of their plate chiller? Seems like you are not solving the real problem. You could put your hops in bags, buy/build a hop spider, or whirlpooling.

I’ve tried it all... it does not help.

 

[crane]

I’ve tried it all... it does not help.

Lots of people use plate chillers and do not have problems with clogging with either of the methods I mentioned above.

In the case of a hop spider or bags, there is little chance for error in terms of keeping the hops separate from the main wort as long as your you aren't using too course of material. You could get one of these methods to work for you which would save effort on brew day as you wouldn't need to do 2 separate boils. Many would argue that you will get better hop utilization from having the hops in the full volume of the boil as opposed to concentrating them in a small volume boil.