Why would hops drop out faster in one beer vs another

Yes, but the term "essential oils" implies, in chemistry circles, homeopathic medicine, and cosmetics, that the oils of said plant were extracted (usually through distillation) and then packaged in a concentrated form.

When you boil hops or hop pellets, you are brewing with actual hop oils, not "essential" hop oils.

 

So a brewery could re-implement those oils through adding an extract pretty easily.

 

Semantics...

 

Hypothetically, although in another thread it was mentioned that hop extract is exponentially more expensive than the already quite pricey hops, so it is not feasible economically for breweries to rely on this. Also, adding extract wouldn't necessarily fix the problem- if the oils are losing potency over time, this may not stop whether boiled into the wort or extracted via some purification process and added to the wort.

 

I could have sworn reading a press release that Stone put out with the first batch of Enjoy By that mentioned using hops extract, but I haven't been able to find it since.

I guess the benefit would be that you could brew a perfect expensive batch, or you could use a small amount of it to maintain consistency among many batches of the same beer. From what I can tell, a brewery wouldn't HAVE to list it as an adjunct, since it's using hops already.

 

It's not impossible folks might be using it in the wild. Check out this info cross ref'd from a very knowledgeable guy : http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/lupulin-extract-from-hops.178756/

 

Found it! I doubt this will matter much to anyone but me, but here it is:
http://blog.stonebrew.com/index.php/stone-enjoy-by-ipa/
Near the bottom, listed in the ingredients, is Super Galena Hop Extract. Looks like they use it during the boil for bittering. I'll bet this helps with consistency?

 

Sculpin also has the burst that seems unnatural at first, and then falls off very quickly (within a month in bottles). I could definitely see the necessity of extract to balance those batches.

 

P. Ballantine & Sons had an on-site distillation unit for making their own hop oil to add to their ales, XXX and IPA (and, probably, Burton), during aging, and their ales sold in the same price segment as AB's premium and superpremium beers.

Well, hop oil wouldn't be considered an "adjunct" in the common brewing industry definition of the word, but either way, there is no legal requirement to list any adjunct or additives on beer labels in the US, and hop oil would obvious fall under the TTB's "hops (or their parts or products)" terminology.

Hop extract is a common product offered by numerous hop companies, and used by many brewers, both "craft" and "macro" - Barth-Haas Hop Products

 

Not sure balance has much to do with it, but type of hops and hop additions (number of, at what time, etc.) definitely do. Different aromas/flavors are different chemicals, each with a unique volatility. Although, with any hop, the larger amount of hops you dry hop with, the longer that aroma is going to stick around.

In my opinion/experience centennial holds up nicely, Bell's Two Hearted having the longest shelf-life.

Amarillo on the other hand falls off pretty quickly; Sculpin, Red's Rye, Hop Head Red being great examples.

One last thing-
IPA's kept in your fridge at home, with very minor temperature fluctuations, will keep MUCH better than IPA's kept in an open-front cooler at the bottle shop. If the packaging is damp and the bottles "sweaty", IMO it is barely better than a warm shelf. Cheers

 

That's one way to cut the cost of Hop Oil Extract. See my post above quoting Bill from SN and his perception of the matter, which combined with tongue and cheek conversations with brewers is where my perception of it being financially challenging come from.

 

Hm. I'm guessing that Ballantine didn't use the hypercritical C02 method and they probably didn't use ethanol- I wonder if you could use steam distillation on hops? Or would that trigger isomerization?

EDIT: They probably did use steam distillation, dealing with any aromatic changes by using the distilled hop oil for bittering purposes.

I would guess that modern brewers would only want to use C02 extracted hop oils, which is why they are so expensive. But it seems like at least bittering using steam distilled extract is an option, especially when consistency is at stake.

 

• IBU:FG ratio
  
• what percentage of hops added were early additions; the more early additions, the longer the bitterness will last
• variety of hops used
  
• quality of hops used and how they were stored prior to use
  
• brewer skill, particularly regarding oxygen exposure
• supply chain time variation among different brewers, distributors and retailers
• pre-sale storage condition variations among different brewers, distributors and retailers
• bottle variation
• day-to-day palate variation

Think that about covers it.

 

You'll find some great information about hops, aging, and freshness from actual brewers in this thread: http://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/old-ipas.177842/

Pay particular attention to responses from Starkbier (of Victory), Peter_Wolfe (of A-B), and JackHorzempa.

 

The material Ballantine (and successors and imitators*) used is referred to as "hop oil" rather than "hop extract". The latter product as sold by the hop companies, of course, is noted for primarily adding bitterness, but the hop oil was said to increase the fragrance ("highly aromatic") and flavor.

Here's how Barth-Haas describes the differences and usages:

* For more info, see Greg Glaser's article The Late, Great Ballantine from Modern Brewery Age (no longer online, apparently) but reprinted without permission (and miscredited to Chowhound ) at http://professorgoodales.net/archives/6566 Especially Alan Kornhauser's experience while at Portland Brewing Co. trying to duplicate Ballantine XXX and IPA using hop oils.

 

There are several compounds that occur when beer oxidizes, the cardboard flavor is just one.

Hop oils oxidize quickly, the total dissolved oxygen in the package is something brewers try to minimize. Cans usually have lower TDO than bottles. Having a beer conditioned in the package helps, but the yeast only scavenge so much O2.

Some bottling lines have very low TDO. Cheaper bottling lines or old used equipment, not so much.

 

You might be interested to read SierraNevadaBill's opinion on the subject.
http://www.beeradvocate.com/communi...-get-in-most-sierra-nevada-ipas.178072/page-2
Posts #44 and #49

 

I may be imagining this, but I can't help but feel that hops fall off faster in low ABV IPAs as compared to high ABV IPAs

Is this true, or is this just in my head?