A long string of experiences with dry hopping has led me to this question: If I rack the beer into a bucket (mixing it with sugar) just before bottling, am I losing a lot of hop aroma to the open air? I've never been able to get the kind of hop aroma you find in some beers, no matter how much I add. When I rack into the bucket, the smell is amazing. When I sample the beer, it's much less so. Is that 10-15 minutes of open-air contact sucking out the aroma? Does anyone do something different to avoid this? (I know that kegging would make this easier, but I'm not there at the moment). Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
It's not so much the open air sucking out the aroma, but rather O2 getting into the finished beer, so that the aromas change and fade more quickly. Unfortunately I don't know a good way to prevent this other than by purging with CO2, and in pratical terms, that means kegging. Note that purging/kegging won't eliminate the problem. But it will slow it down.
I bottle my beers, including my IPAs, exactly as you describe. I always have a pronounced hop aroma in my IPAs and I use less aroma hops than many BAs post on threads: typically 1 ounce at end of boil and 1-2 ounces dry hop in the primary bucket. I am at a loss to explain why you are not satisfied with the amount of aroma you are obtaining. I don’t doubt that a tiny bit of aroma ‘escapes’ during the bottling process but my personal experience is that tons of hop aroma remains. Another possibility is that you are oxidizing your beers during the actual siphoning into the bottles process? If too much oxygen ingress occurs during the insertion of beer into the bottles this can ‘damage’ the hop aroma via oxidation processes. Cheers!
I haven't really had a big problem with hop aroma loss in my beers either, and I bottle. A couple of them (the APA IPA, PtE-Pseudo-Clone) have had enough hop aroma to choke a water-buffalo. Short of advising you to chop up and snort some hops to get your fix each time you open a beer, I'm not sure what I can do to help here.
15"? Does that mean 15 minute? I just did my first 30 min hop stand at 160°F wort, and I'm looking forward to the results.
As suggested above, I think the issue is oxidation. Rack gently, have a lid on your bottling bucket with a hole for the siphon tube, dissolve the priming sugar in a half pint of boiling water so less mixing will be required (stir gently). Bottle as gently as possible, within reason. There is a little CO2 dissolved in your unprimed beer and with luck and care this will provide some protection. You can also just add more dry hops but that is covering up the issue and will only buy you a little bit of time.
160? 170? I've heard conflicting stories. Last time I did 170, awesome beer. Is 160 "better?" (remember, if you answer yes to "better" that means forever, no matter what, for all times, in all circumstances, till the cows come home with no backsies)
15" = 15 minutes 15' = 15 hours 15° = 15 seconds --- I'd like to let'em stand longer but my brew day is already long enough and I'm getting old.
Unauthorized Biography of Hop Stand's Evolution Flame out; chill immediately Flame out; rest a few minutes Chill to 180; add hops; let stand / whirlpool between 10" to what'evah. Chill to 160; add hops; let stand / whirlpool between 10" to what'evah. BYO had an article this year about readily vaporized hop oils and wort temperature. IIRC...some crafty μ-brewers are hop-standing at 160 b/c many aroma-type oils are conserved at that temperature. -- Warranties neither expressed nor implied. User assumes all risk. Not intended for use by children or cows.
Good enough for me. Next hopstand will be in the next couple days*, and at 160F for at least ten minutes (I usually do 20 or so). *the citra bomb from hell is up next
Below is some information from a presentation entitled Hop Quality that James Altweis gave at the 2010 NHC: · Most of the essential oils “flash” at temps well below 140°F · Farnesene = 79°F · Myrcene = 104°F · Humulene = 110.2°F · Caryophyllene = 200°F The only hop essential oil that has a flash point over 180°F is Caryophyllene at 200°F, and this one has spicy character like black pepper It seems to me that with the possible exception of the essential oil Caryophyllene that there is not much of a difference in conducting a hop stand at 160°F vs. some other higher temperature (e.g., 180°F, 200°F, whatever). Cheers!
You might be able to reduce oxidation with an autosiphon direct from a carboy. Doing it wrong will oxidize it about as much as the bucket will, doing it right will be much less.
Some that I know do a stand at 120F, so that not all of some oils flash off, and they are ot too long in the danger zone. For some hop compounds you have to dry hop.
grows hop commercially and if you're into homegrown...is a frequent poster @ http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Grow-Hops/
2 weeks ago I did my first hop stand for 20 mins.. 1 oz falconers flight for 20 minutes right after flame out .Looking forward to see what the results are.
