Mash hopping

If you have too many hops and can't use them fast enough and price isn't an issue, then mash hop away. Truthfully, I over-bought on an order, and it wasn't hurting me much financially (beer in ingredients are pretty cheep), but I did in fact have more hops than I needed, so I've mash hopped a few times. Whether it's made any difference flavor-wise, it's hard to tell (which is probably an indicator that it doesn't make much difference).

If cost is an issue to you, or if your hops are expensive and hard to find, I wouldn't do it.

 

Don't be a wuss like me. Make a hop bursted IIPA. NO BITTERING ADDITIONS. NO FWH.

 

Put all the hops in after flame out if you are as brave as you say you are.

 

Please, please, please, don't put any of those hops in the mash.

I've got some year old whole leaf Tettnangs I will send to you if you want to try this. You'll get the same results.

 

I've done it three times when online stores messed up my orders and ended up sending me an extra half pound of hops. First two times were warrior, once pellet, once whole leaf , third time was pellet calypso.

Leaf hops didn't do a thing flavor or bitterness wise, but may have helped with lautering. Both times with pellets I've had very strong bitterness in both the wort exiting the mash tun and in the final product, additionally both beers were pretty resinous, but that may have been due to the full pound of hops split between late in the boil and dry hopping.

Long story short it's a waste of hops. You won't get any bitterness if using leaf hops because you won't shear the lupulin glands, whereas you will with pellets. Any time I've used it, it's been with an ass load of other hops, so I couldn't definitively attribute any specific flavors to the mash hops.

 

Dig it .. entire BYO article on it right chere

http://byo.com/component/k2/item/2958-pre-boil-hopping

 

You know you're balling when you opt for whole leaf hops in lieu of rice hulls for an easy lauter.

 

closest i came was centennial at 15, then half a lb of hops at flameout, whirlpooled and let the temp drop to 175, cracked the flame on again, whirlpooled for 5-10 min, flame off, then chilled.

smell was killer. flavours were great.
my friend complained that, while it tasted good, it was missing the astringent hop flavour to call it an IPA. i wanted to punch him in the throat.

 

I just made an IPA that I put 1.5oz Amarillo in the mash. I am not sure thats a waste of time or not. Only way to tell would be to do a side by side.

 

That was pretty much my experience as well.

I would use mash hops again - but only to fluff up the grainbed when using a good portion of rye/wheat.

 

Everybody's a critic...

Besides, astringent and bitter are not the same thing.

 

I made a really good IPA a month or so ago. Tasted and smelled great with 8.3 ABV and no detectable alcohol at all. Buddy told me it was good but he would like to have more body in the beer. THAT was a throat punch moment as well... besides I had a 1/2 lb carapils in the mash too.. plenty of body AND head retention.

 

"according to the guidelines...." and that's when i tuned out.
he's a BJCP judge, whatever that's worth.
and now you know why i never, ever enter my beer in competition.

 

Perhaps someone with a humanities degree, possibly someone who's regular day job is human resources*, came up with the whole BJCP thing? I can sometimes relate to the sentiments of people who don't enter competitions because it all just gets too ridiculously complicated and over-stuffy, which at some point must certainly cease to be fun...

One of the benefits of being a craft beer drinker is that you can appreciate the more complex and subtle aspects of your beverage, but don't have to have a silver spoon stuck up your butt to do so (like some of the snobbier wine drinkers I've met).

Guidelines or not, astringent and bitter just ain't the same thing. Beers with little bitterness/hops can be astringent while highly bitter beers don't have to be (I don't think lagunitas hop stoopid is astringent, for example, even tho it's quite bitter**).

*a department who's purpose is to take a simple problem and make it complicated, thus manufacturing demand for the human resources department

**but then I call this a "clean" bitterness, and classify the type of bitterness as similar to PtE (hops are crisp, clean, pronounced, not muddy, and not comoplicated by maltiness, excessive earthiness or dankness, and "balance" skewed highly towards the bitter hops side). But of course the possibility does exist that I might be full of dog-doo, so take it for whatever that's worth...

 

If anyone is going to the NHC, one guy I know is presenting on Mash Hopping and FWH. He is a homebrewer, but he runs the General Store for Bells, and probably had good access to the production lab for measurements, and sensory panels for taste evaluations.