I just kegged a ten gallon batch of this year's Cream Ale (a little late this year, but so was the hot weather). Unexpectedly, I didn't realize I was out of corn until brew day, so I simply used 87.5% German Pilsner and 12.5% table sugar ...and a bit of Willamette. About 20 IBUs, 4.5% ABV, and very Pilsner-ey. Long story short, and with apologies to the Cream Ale purists (I used to be one), I'm going to skip the corn altogether next year! However, I was thinking that, with a bit more hop flavor and aroma, this would make a nice sessionable APA. Maybe I can tweak the second keg and serve them side-by-side. I'm not too concerned with boosting the bitterness. The aroma part is easy - I can dry hop it to my heart's content. But what's the simplest way to add hop flavor after the fact? Has anybody had any luck infusing hops in Vodka, then adding it to the keg? Or do I need to boil up a gallon or so of DME? I suppose I could buy extracts, but I'd rather not. Thoughts? Suggestions?
A hop tincture? For as often as we write about bacon vodka, you'd think that this would have come up by now--And it's perfectly appropriate for the Kentucky Common Ale. It's always seemed to be the bathtub delicacy that nobody ever brews. I'm a big fan of tasting ingredients before I add them to the pot, or keg as the case may be. I think this one would be a little harsh directly on the palate. I think that you will have success when you put this in the keg--especially if you start with one of those mason jars of moonshine. Consider the KY boy's interest piqued.
I've tried the hop infused vodka in the past. I didn't think it worked all that well. My tincture brought out a lot of bitterness. I believe I only tried once using Cascade hops. Perhaps a less bitter hop like nobles would work better. I think hop flavor/aroma extracts would be the way to go if you can get them.
If by hop flavor, you mean something you would ordinarily get out of a short boil, I have no idea what besides a short boil would duplicate the impact. I would not expect alcohol extractables to be the same as thermal extractables. I would just dry hop, possibly using a couple different hops or different dry hop durations if I was concerned about giving the hop presence multi-dimensionality.
Vaccum or steam distill your hops and collect the yellow condensate (essential oils) in an ethanol solution post cold trap. When I worked in conjunction with Sierra, our steam distillations of cascade smelt absolutely awesome (Spicy Grapefruit). I think I still have pdfs of how to set up the distillation apparatus or pictures of the distillation in action Or just by some essential oil hop extract from hop union. The more I try incorporating spices and other adjuncts into beer, the more I go away from the vodka extraction method (cocoa nibs are an exception) as it always seems to extract some unwanted flavors and lend a slight solvent flavor to the beer (Might be particularly sensitive to solvent from working in labs for years).
What about using vegetable glycerin? I think it has been used to extract oils from, like, plants and stuff, or so I've heard you know.
i've done hop teas with pretty good success. Use a french press with like 2 oz of your hop(s) of choice and near boiling water (i would say add dme if still in fermenter) and let soak for 15 mins. Definitely helps boost flavor.
I tried a French Press hop tea using hot water a few years ago. It was ok, but there was something going on that I didn't like, though I can't remember exactly what it was. I blamed it on the fact that it was plain water, but didn't follow up on it because it wasn't a pressing need at the time. I found an interesting blog that makes the Vodka thing sound promising: http://barleypopmaker.info/2011/03/06/the-ultimate-hophead-treat-hop-extract-from-vodka/ I may play around with this a bit.
not sure what happened with yours, but i did an experiment with hop teas I was hoping to ultimately get published, but never did. I wish i could find the the results, but I can't seem to now. I ended up doing 11 different hop teas with one control. Iirc, I found the techniques of pumping the hops every couple of minutes with the press to help extract the flavor the best, but ultimately that you need to be very careful of O2. Iirc my results with a panel showed that using DME and adding the hop tea just as primary was dying down, with hops gently stirred every couple minutes was the ultimate winner. My thought was because O2 was taken up by the yeast. I did a 2-Hearted clone that was judged to be close to the original using only hop tea, albeit a little weak on the aroma. Interesting, I've always heard bad results of soaking hops in vodka so never even tried...
You've got my interest piqued again in this technique. I have a mess of extra hops and plenty of vodka on hand. I think one mistake I made last time was to let it soak too long. I'm going to play around with some tinctures, with a high alpha hop but I'm going to keep the contact time short, hours instead of days. I'll post back in a couple of days.
I wonder if a Hop Shot would help at all in this case: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/review/product/list/id/3103/
Looks like Hop Shot is strictly for bitterness and is used in the boil in place of bittering hops. I'm looking for flavor.
As mentioned above, look at hopunion's page for vaccum distilled varietal extract that contain essential oils (i.e. the good stuff for aroma and flavor): http://www.hopunion.com/1022_VarietySpecificHopOil.cfm?p4=open
