We have one of our local breweries, Phillips Brewing, that has started a process where you can "teabag" your growler with a selection of hops. So you can pretty much dry hop anything they fill into growlers. Is this something new or is anyone else doing this?
This is the first time I have heard of a commercial brewery (brewpub) adding hops to a growler to ‘dry hop’ the beer. I am a homebrewer and I have read thread discussion where homebrewers mentioned adding hops directly to their bottled beers to dry hop within the bottle. How effective this is I don’t know. I have had draft beer that was hop infused via a Randall. The beer was good but I can’t claim to really know how effective the Randall process is. Sounds like an interesting exercise by Phillips Brewing. It will be interesting if other Brewpubs adopt this practice. Cheers!
Wachusett Brewing in Massachusetts does promos at bars where you can dry hop your own pint with a small tea infuser.
La Conner Brewing produced an IPA where they added a hop cone to the bottled beer as a dry hop process. It is highly rated: 96 (World Class). The reviews indicate that the hop cone must have provided a CO2 nucleation point since the beer tended to ‘gush’ when it was opened. http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/698/16940/ Cheers!
I had Burton Baton run through a randal of whole cone citra hops recently. The presence of the citra was pretty extreme. I thought it was very effective. I wouldn't shy away from adding some hops to a growler if given the offer. Sounds interesting.
Capital idea! I would love to see the face on the beer server when he sees that there is something in the growler as they fill up the growler. Cheers!
I have used a metal tea ball strainer for quite a while, but I like the re-usable tea bags idea - almostjay 's link above was to a huge bag, still looking for the little ones. Found some, search for either of these two Twinklefilter 50pcs 2.36 inch* 2.76 inch Vakind Disposable String Drawstring Empty Heat Seal Filter Paper Tea Bags Pack of 100
I've not heard of a brewery doing it but occasionally a couple of bars around here do it with a hop torpedo. I have a couple of French press coffee makers and a small randall which all work pretty well. it you want to try it out for yourself. I tend to use whole leaf hops.
Three Brothers in Harrisonburg has a couple hop vines outside that when they are in season they'll throw a fresh hop in their IPA. Haven't had the chance to try it.