weiht wrote:Capn Ahab, I dont know where you get the idea of 80c steeping or steeping hot as a mistake made by british brewers... In fact, its practised by more US brewers than UK until recently. Why did i say recently? Well, most older UK breweries use a hopback as a means to extract aroma, so I dont know where u got the notion of UK brewers steeping hot exclusively.
An unfounded prejudice maybe. I've only ever seen reference made to it on JBK, never in any of the books I've read or overseas forums I've browsed, and never in any recipes other than those seen on UK forums.
weiht wrote:I'm sure that you are having great success with ur method, but to say that others are making a mistake is a MISTAKE. Brewing and to a great extent, homebrewing has no hardline rules on what makes a good or great beer. Firestone walker add their dry hops just at high krausen starts falling, but russian river believes in taking most of the yeast out first before dry hopping, and both head brewers have great respect for each other as well as the beers.
Fair enough, good point. I have tried plenty of homebrewed beers that have had the 80 C steep (mine included) that have had underwhelming aroma, especially compared to beers using flameoutandchill hops so I guess I have a bias. Thinking about this a bit more in light of what you and Critch have said, most,
if not all of the hoppy pales I have enjoyed from top notch breweries must have had their final hop addition sitting in hot wort for an extended period, while in the vid Orlando posted (nice one, thanks!) the guy says that the 'oil fractions' or aroma compounds boil off at absurdly low temps, so how do these two things tally up?
I'm not sure I am completely swayed by the arguments you and Critch have put up, as I can't shake the feeling that hot steeping for an extended period, be it 95 C or 80 C, will drive off lots (most) of the volatile oils, but it's food for thought. Two interesting points I took from the video were 1. That there are compounds in wort that actually solubalise (spelling?) the oil fractions, and as such bind the aromas into the wort. This may explain why a beer bittered with citra, for example, can still be reminiscent of pineapple even if bramling cross and goldings were used late on. 2. There is a relationship between
energy (heat) applied to the hops, and by extension the resins, and
time, in which the same bitterness can be extracted by a high temp for a short time or a lower temp for a long time. I wonder if the same is true for the oils; if so it gives credence to both sides of the argument...