The Averagely Perfect American IPA Project - Poll #20- First Wort Hopping?

This series of polls is so intense that I don't think I ever actually want to brew the beer, I just want the pollls to go on forever

 

Thanks.

 

Options 3 and 4 make my brain hurt.

 

Voted no. Don't really see a point in doing FWH with Magnum hops since they don't leave a flavor that we would want to remain through the boil, and it doesn't have a harsh bitterness that needs to be smoothed out.

 

Nyet.

 

I prefer first wort hopping instead of 60 minutes, but as stated earlier, it's not necessary in this case.

 

Can I vote no?

 

Does first wort hopping add a flavor with any hop? My experiences say no, what about yours?

For what it's worth I voted for FWH in place of a 60 minute addition, only because I FWH almost all beers I brew.

 

I have never done a FWH only beer to know if it carried through, but all the "pro FWH" info I have heard/read that it is supposed to give you the flavor of 20 minute addition, more official bitterness than a 60, but smooth. If all that is true, it seems that Magnum makes both mute points.

 

I do FWH out of laziness, honestly. But, the other school of thought is that everything will be boiled out so there is really no flavor addition, and I have never experienced anything to suggest otherwise. I would also say that it won't matter in an IPA especially. I do have a friend who believes (unscientific) that FWH aids in an extended aroma life from the late addition hops.

 

I would enjoy it very much if you did.

 

Every beer I do is FWH just to have one less thing to forget on brew day. From personal experience (Anecdotal), I've only had a couple hop varietals (Apollo, Summit and Citra) produce any discernable flavor contribution that were used as a FWH (This is specifically referring to beers that only contained a FWH addition and nothing else). The most recent was a barleywine I FWH'd with 6 oz of Apollo that still somehow managed to retain a pretty dank hop profile, despite FWH only and a 120 minute boil. That being said, Gordon Strong (In Brewing Better Beer) seems to really believe in FWHing producing lots of flavor and aroma...

The rationalization for the 20 minute addition argument I've heard seems to be that damn article where they FWH a bunch of pilsners and compare it to traditional hopping... If you read the paper, when they analyzed (Quantified) the hop oils/compounds that are responsible for aroma &/or flavor, the FWH beers had less hop oils/compounds than the beers hopped traditionally, despite having what the tasting panel referred to as "a more pleasing hop profile". It may very well be that you get some hop compound-sugar adducts that aren't volatile or some oxidation products that aren't screened for, and thus would not be detected in their screen for aroma compounds, but until thats explicitly shown to be true, I don't think I have much faith in that argument.

 

I voted no. Currently more people have voted yes than no but the yes vote is split among several options. Not sure what that will mean for Vikeman's final ruling...

Here's a FWH question. On my system, because I am doing full boils on the stove top, it can take me ~30 minutes to get my wort to a boil. If I were working with my outdoor turkey fryer propane burner system, it would take less time. Do we have a predictive understanding of how FWH would differ in these two systems?

 

Good question. For me the hops hit the kettle before any wort, so mine wait through collection of the first and second runnings.

I have done it with Summit (of the hops you listed), but it was an IPA so am I going to detect any differences anyway? I plan on doing a Blonde Ale soon maybe I will just do a FWH only schedule and see what results I come up with. I have done a schedule for an ESB where I only FWH and DH with EKG, there was a decent flavor from the EKG but I assumed that was mostly coming from the dry hop addition.

 

FWH is historically used to replace late hop additions, which I would never want to do in an IPA. From Palmer's "How to Brew":

First Wort Hopping
An old yet recently rediscovered process (at least among homebrewers), first wort hopping (FWH) consists of adding a large portion of the finishing hops to the boil kettle as the wort is received from the lauter tun. As the boil tun fills with wort (which may take a half hour or longer), the hops steep in the hot wort and release their volatile oils and resins. The aromatic oils are normally insoluble and tend to evaporate to a large degree during the boil. By letting the hops steep in the wort prior to the boil, the oils have more time to oxidize to more soluble compounds and a greater percentage are retained during the boil.
Only low alpha finishing hops should be used for FWH, and the amount should be no less than 30% of the total amount of hops used in the boil. This FWH addition therefore should be taken from the hops intended for finishing additions. Because more hops are in the wort longer during the boil, the total bitterness of the beer in increased but not by a substantial amount due to being low in alpha acid. In fact, one study among professional brewers determined that the use of FWH resulted in a more refined hop aroma, a more uniform bitterness (i.e. no harsh tones), and a more harmonious beer overall compared to an identical beer produced without FWH.

 

Interesting. I'm actually getting bored with the polls and just want to brew the damn beer already. Thus, I voted for no FWH addition.

 

I´ve never done a FWH addition, so I think my vote would impair this poll. I skip it

 

I'll echo the same sentiment as last week in this more pertinent thread...

It appears the schedule is already a complicated 60/15/10/5/0/DH. No reason for FWH for smoother bitterness, especially in an IPA that tops off at 64 IBUs. First, it will be undetectable with all of those late additions. Second, you need that larger, robust traditional bittering addition to combat all of those fruity and juicy late hops. Otherwise, you'll just have sweet hop juice instead of beer, and those 64 IBUs will be perceived as tasting more like 44 IBUs.

That, and Magnum is already smooth and low cohumulone.