Saving All Hops for Dry Hop

Dennis, you are correct that it is a great read. I read it a couple of years ago and I learned a lot.

We are fortunate that Peter sometimes participates on BA: @Peter_Wolfe

I have also learned a lot from Peter in numerous correspondence.

Cheers!

Jack

 

I did it once before and I wouldn't do it again . Beer was okay but should have been better.

 

While we are on the topic of flavors from hop oils, considering most people focus on the fruity/citrusy hop flavor I thought it might be of interest to provide the following info I received a lecture on in brewing school:

- Hop oils compared to Real Citrus Fruits

o Orange: limonene, pinene, geranial, linalool, sulfury

o Grapefruit: limonene, geranial, linalool, sulfury

o Lemon: limonene, pinene

o Lime: limonene, pinene


- Classic “Grapefruit” American Hop Aroma

o Limonene combines with hydrogen sulfide (produced by yeast during fermentation)

o This bonding provduces 1 p menthen 8 thiol which gives the grapefruit character

 

That's very interesting. Presumably, you could maximize grapefruit by pairing a high Limonene hop with a yeast that produces a lot of sulfur aroma during fermentation. Grapefruit IPL anyone?

 

If they haven't already, Jack's Abby should get on this STAT

 

Alpha-pinene can also undergo a transformation to terpeniol and subsequently to 1-p-menthene-8-thiol. The common name for it is simply grapefruit mercaptan. Many of the really interesting and different aromas in new aroma hops like Amarillo are due to mercaptans (aka thiols) as opposed to the classic terpene oils. In addition to grapefruit they are responsible for mango-like, tropical fruit and currant aromas (and yes, even the cat-pee smell sometimes present in Simcoe).

The type of detector usually used in gas chromatography when studying terpene hop aroma is called an FID. FID's are blind to sulfur compounds, so it was many years before people started realizing how important sulfur compounds were to overall hop aroma (it also caused some confusion when doing GC/Olfactory work). Now days it's more common for GCs to have mass spectrometers attached to them which can detect pretty much anything.

With respect to the original subject, I have tried that during homebrewing (saving all aroma hops for dry hopping only) and I would agree with some of the other posters that you lose flavor complexity. Ignoring alpha-acid conversion, I think early kettle additions aren't terribly important, but even a minor late kettle addition gives you something that dry hopping doesn't.

 

Had this a while back from Tired Hands....not great, but wasn't bad:

http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28383/128666/

Description: "This IPA was brewed with no hop additions during the boil. The first hop addition was added post whirlpool after we had cooled the wort down to 160F. We then dry hopped aggressively with Citra, Simcoe, Centennial, and Motueka."

 

Peter, you stated “minor late kettle addition gives you something”. You are referring to an end of boil hop addition in that statement?

Cheers!

Jack

 

Generally, yes. I tend to use the phrasing "at flame-out" in my written recipes, because it works regardless of your actual boil length or dwell time. Plus it sounds cool.