After listening to Vinnie Cilurzo (brewer of Pliny the Elder DIPA) hold forth about the merits of Hop Extract (not imparting too much vegetal taste, but retaining the spice and fruitiness) I went on a quest for such a thing, wondering if it was only available to pro-brewers in large cans . . .
. . . but this place (Hoptech) seems to have like-minded products:
. . . but I’m not sure which more like “hop extract” (should I go for “Hop Oil” or “Late Hop Essence” or “Iso Alpha Acid Extract”?), and I am wondering which is the niftiest product to use . . . mainly to get really fruity/spicey/piney hop-quality in the taste and the aroma, and none of the vegetable stuff.
I’m leaning toward the “Hop Oil” because of their description . . . but wonder if any of you have used such things?
(also, how do these Hoptech products differ from the “Hop Esseces/oils” found in health food stores?)
I’ve been experimenting for some time with various hop extracts and especially hop oil. My current science project involves distilling my own aromatic hop oil.
Vinnie is right though…hop extracts and oils are an easy way to avoid those grassy/vegetal notes that I can’t stand in a lot of the current crop of IPAs. It’s all a matter of personal taste though, since a lot of folks enjoy that character in their beer.
To me, it’s definitely a defect.
the iso alpha will most likely get you the bitterness and the oil or late hop essence will give you the aroma sensation you are looking for. check to see if the supplier has different ‘types’ to choose from. ‘woody’, ‘spicy’, ‘floral’, ‘citrus’, etc… be careful though.
Vinnie only uses the hop extract for bittering in Pliny the Elder (it replaces the 90 and 45 minute additions). He uses pellets for everything after that for flavor and aroma. He states that he couldn’t get the same aroma/flavor from the extracts as he could from actual hop pellets.
I would go with the iso alpha extract and use it just for bittering.
If you click on the links for each product under the link you provided they explain what each one does…
Oil is like dry hopping
Essense is like late hop additions (flavoring)
acid extract is for bittering
They also don’t seem to have any of the essense or acid in stock right now.
I’ve never used it, because I guess I’m one of those bastards that Prof referenced above ;D who likes all the green tastes of my hops.
I would try it, but it seems awfully expensive - I brew 12gal batches and for my IPA, the 60min addition yields about 35ibus which would equate to about 7-8 of those shots. I can get the same from 2oz of Columbus.
who likes all the green tastes of my hops.