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Author Topic: Fresh HOPS, How To?  (Read 14600 times)

Offline reineman

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Fresh HOPS, How To?
« on: July 21, 2012, 08:03:07 am »
Hello brewers, I have an opportunity to acquire all the fresh hops I care to pick.  It's a farm here in Northern California and the varieties are all Northwest American.  The farm hasn't done AA analysis so that is a guess but doesn't bother me too much.

From reading I've done around the web it looks like a good ratio for converting a wet hop usage from dry hops is 4:1.  If anyone can confirm or comment please do so.

My primary question is regarding beer style.  The only harvest Ale style I have ever had is American Pale Ale.  I am wondering if there is a reason for this.  I can easilly do an IPA or Imperial IPA but is there somethng about fresh hops that would make that a bad idea?

Appreciate comments and opinions,
Rick

Offline erockrph

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2012, 08:34:59 am »
One thing I'd recommend is if you don't know the AA% of the hops, then you might want to keep the wet hops for your late additions and use hops with known AA values for your bittering addition.
Eric B.

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Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2012, 09:48:45 am »
At the NHC, Jammie Floyd of Ninkasi recommended using a high alpha bittering hop for the bittering addition and using the wet hops for later additions (here I am using wet as off the bine, some say fresh).

The ratio should be closer to 5 on the wet vs dry.

Hops are dried to 8 to 10% moisture. Use 10 as the math is easy. So those are 10% water 90% vegetable material.

Off the bine the hops are 80% water and 20% vegetable material. Since we are interested in the properties from the hop content not the water content, 90/20=4.5 times as much of the wet hops.

Edit - some say to round up to 5, or even use 6 times as you are really after the hop qualities in the beer.

« Last Edit: July 21, 2012, 09:50:43 am by hopfenundmalz »
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Offline pinnah

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #3 on: July 22, 2012, 06:36:12 am »
My primary question is regarding beer style.  The only harvest Ale style I have ever had is American Pale Ale.  I am wondering if there is a reason for this.  I can easilly do an IPA or Imperial IPA but is there somethng about fresh hops that would make that a bad idea?

I think AIPA is the best choice for a fresh n wet hopped ale.

Although I am picking hops today,
and was thinking about a hoppy American farmhouse.   :o 

Offline nateo

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #4 on: August 07, 2012, 04:18:07 pm »
Sorry to kick up a dead thread, but I've ordered a pound of fresh Citra that should show up sometime this month. I was thinking of throwing some in a batch of a sour beer I have in secondary now (something like a Flanders blonde). Would using the whole pound as a dry hop be crazy? I was planning on using 2oz of dry hops.
In der Kürze liegt die Würze.

Offline tschmidlin

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2012, 01:23:28 am »
A pound fresh is roughly equivlent to 3 oz dried.  I'm not sure I'd like a dry hopped sour beer, but give it a shot if it appeals to you.
Tom Schmidlin

Offline tomsawyer

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2012, 05:38:10 am »
The APA is well suited because it showcases hops like no other beer.  You can do another style like an amber or a bitter but if you bump up the hops it'll turn it into an APA.
Lennie
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Offline nateo

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #7 on: August 08, 2012, 08:30:47 am »
A pound fresh is roughly equivlent to 3 oz dried.  I'm not sure I'd like a dry hopped sour beer, but give it a shot if it appeals to you.

Mike at the madfermentationist blog raved about a sour tripel he dry-hopped with citra. I thought it sounded OK so I'll give it a shot.
In der Kürze liegt die Würze.

Offline nateo

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #8 on: September 19, 2012, 08:26:42 pm »
What's the typical extraction time for fresh hops? I was thinking of 5 days or so, is that too short/long?
In der Kürze liegt die Würze.

Offline nateo

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #9 on: October 08, 2012, 07:49:02 pm »
So I ended up using half the hops in a basic tripel, and the other half in the pale sour. They lost some weight overnight, so I ended up with 200g in each.

The beers are fantastic. Insane, huge hop punch. A good showcase for the hops, but I think next time I'll use more like 1/3 or 1/4 of a pound for a batch. A 5-6:1 ratio seems really high. I'd say using 8oz fresh hops was comparable to using 4oz of dry hops, so more like a 2:1 ratio.

I know they had a lot more water weight, but I guess the volatile oils you lose during kilning made the hops pack more of a punch.
In der Kürze liegt die Würze.

Offline snowtiger87

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Re: Fresh HOPS, How To?
« Reply #10 on: October 09, 2012, 01:14:01 pm »
I used 2 pounds of Cascade (8.4 AA here in Colorado) for 10 gallons of beer. I used an IPA base and used Columbus pellet hops for bittering. I put the fresh hops in  the sparge water, in the mash, first wort hops, and then huge knock-out addition. I then split the batch into 2 fermentations - using American Ale yeast in one and Saison yeast :o in the other. The Fresh Hop IPA is kegged and tasting pretty good but the Fresh Hop Saison is still in the secondary and tastes amazing.
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