Blitzing whole hops for dry hopping

[mysterio]

What beer did you make Ady?

[Jocky]

I blitzed hops for a beer recently, and it did seem more effective than using whole leaf, with a similar effect to pellets. Unlike pellets though, they didn't sink and the smaller pieces were easily picked up by my syphon.

I suggest that if you do this you have a small filter on the end of your syphon when racking to the bottling bucket.

[AdyG]

I blitzed hops for a beer recently, and it did seem more effective than using whole leaf, with a similar effect to pellets. Unlike pellets though, they didn't sink and the smaller pieces were easily picked up by my syphon.

I suggest that if you do this you have a small filter on the end of your syphon when racking to the bottling bucket.

Yeah I've noticed this, even though I pureed it to a paste, it's still floating on top. A good stir a day, and a sieve will still be used.

What beer did you make Ady?

I rebrewed my Simcoe IPA, although the first brew was good I didn't maximise on my dry hopping:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=59512

I got advice on here on various threads about dry hopping, so I've put about 50g of Simcoe and 20g each of Amarillo and Centenial just to use them up, in as a dry hop. Not quite the 150g some people suggested, but I thought I would step it up in stages specially if I'm trying a new technique.

[hopsinjoor]

I'm hoping to give this a go myself with my next brew.

I'm also hoping that the hops will settle out after a week without any cooling
Needless to say, I'll be following the reports of how well they settle with little/no cooling with interest.

Cheers Tom

From my experience, they don't settle without cooling. They sit on the top, pretty much like whole cone hops do normally.

I remembered that I had an old fridge/freezer in the cellar, so I've moved everything around so that I can use it. I've just put the FV in there, let's see how it clears at lower temps.

Wooo

[AdyG]

I'm hoping to give this a go myself with my next brew.

I'm also hoping that the hops will settle out after a week without any cooling
Needless to say, I'll be following the reports of how well they settle with little/no cooling with interest.

Cheers Tom

From my experience, they don't settle without cooling. They sit on the top, pretty much like whole cone hops do normally.

I remembered that I had an old fridge/freezer in the cellar, so I've moved everything around so that I can use it. I've just put the FV in there, let's see how it clears at lower temps.

Wooo

I need to find an old fridge for that purpose.... wouldn't mind a cellar too

Will be interested to see how the cooling works with settling the hops. I'm still thinking about sitting the FV in some cold water, not sure how all the green puree on the top is going to fall to the bottom though!

[soupdragon]

From my experience, they don't settle without cooling. They sit on the top, pretty much like whole cone hops do normally

I'm presuming that putting them in a muslin bag won't do much good and, if anything, will reduce the effect?

Cheers Tom

[Dave S]

I can't think of a satisfactory alternative to a roomy, heavy container to keep the blighters down.

[soupdragon]

I can't think of a satisfactory alternative to a roomy, heavy container to keep the blighters down.

I do have a couple of 4" stainless steel nuts that will hold 100g of leaf hops down but the restriction of a bag would have a detrimental effect. Although the fact that they've been smashed to a pulp should give a better result than leaf?

Cheers Tom

[hopsinjoor]

I reckon a muslin bag, or even a pair of tights, if weighted down with stainless, or I was recommended snooker balls, it would have a beneficial effect as then the hops are fully submerged, so there is more surface area in contact with the beer.

[soupdragon]

Would the blitzed hops stay in the bag though?

Cheers Tom

[Dave S]

Would the blitzed hops stay in the bag though?

Cheers Tom

If they're going in a bag with a weight I wouldn't blitz 'em - I don't think

[soupdragon]

Might have to rethink this blitzing hops malarky.

The general idea as I saw it was to get more " bang for your buck " from a given amount of hops. If I can't chill my beer to encourage the hop puree to drop and weighing them down in a muslin sock gives little gain from using whole hops, I might as well stick to using them whole.
Hmmmmm

Cheers Tom

[AdyG]

I only blitzed mine as I only have leaf hops and not pellets which are meant to be better, also I don't think there were any Simcoe pellets available at the time.

I thought it was all about breaking down the strands in the hops to mix better with the liquid. I'm still stirring mine every day mixing the hop puree in with the beer, it sinks... then reforms on the surface again.

[Dave S]

Might have to rethink this blitzing hops malarky.

The general idea as I saw it was to get more " bang for your buck " from a given amount of hops. If I can't chill my beer to encourage the hop puree to drop and weighing them down in a muslin sock gives little gain from using whole hops, I might as well stick to using them whole.
Hmmmmm

Cheers Tom

The last time I dry hopped was in a SS tube with mesh ends, (courtesy of greenxpaddy) using 100g Cascade. The aroma was great but I think I may have crammed too much in. I reckon 60g would have the same effect. At the end of the day, I guess it's largely subjective.

[keith1664]

When I blitzed mine dry they went into a muslin bag weighted down with spoons (all I could find at the time). They stayed in the bag and the effect was pretty much the same as when I blitzed into a puree, ie. loads more effective than whole cones. The problem I had that time was getting the beer off the hops, I ended up with nylon netting tyrapped to the end of my racking cane...even that kept clogging.

In future I shall be sticking to blitzed dry in a weighted muslin bag.