First off- Big shout out to Hoosierbrew and Evil_Morty. Taking your advice landed me the beat IPA i have brewed in 12 years of homebrewing. Just brewed again yesterday and did and will always brew my IPAs like this now. So juicy, bright and refreshing. Top notch gents, thanks again!
Temp is important. You can add the hops post boil and steep, but you’ll extract a lot more bitterness which you’d need to account for. If you cool first to around 170-175F and then steep the hops you’ll extract little to no perceptible bitterness. I like the flavor and aroma better this way and also being able to control the bitterness in the kettle.
So I just made an IPA Saturday. I only added 9 grams of magnum for 60, added 2.75 ounces of hops at 5 minutes then 2.75 ounces at flame out, rest for 75 minutes. All the bitterness was at the end then so… I will try the 175* on my next batch. Looking for a more hop flavored beer with little bitterness. Thanks
Was not a believer till i tasted this batch. I totally agree with Hoosierbrew- i cooled after boil to 185 stopped cooling and wiated till i broke 180. I potched all my hops and kept temp between 172-175. Juiciest most flavorful IPA ive ever brewered. I kegged it last week and have just over a gallon left. I cant leave it alone…
I avoid bitterness by not adding any bittering charges. I don’t add any hops at all until the last 15 minutes of the boil. I usually add 2oz at 15, 2oz at 10, 2oz at 3, 2oz when wort reaches 170F, last time I also added 2 oz dry hop and that worked out nicely.
Wow, that’s a longer whirlpool than I usually do, I’ll have to give it a shot.
Question… the devil’s in the details… Most of what I’ve read (as I recall) has stated that getting just below 170 degrees will shut down AA isomerization and you won’t get any bitterness. Anyone have thoughts/preferences on 175 degrees vs. 165 degrees?
I dont think its a flip-switch situation. 170F boink, no AA… 171F boink, lots of AA. When I say that I chill to 170 I actually chill to 180 then shut the water off and it slids down to 175-170 before stabilized. I drop in the hops and set timer. If the temp hits 160 I hit the flame. With this method I get super flavor and aroma with no extra bitterness that I can notice. Would a lab prove me wrong? Dunno, I doubt it
I’m sure you’ll get some additional measured IBU’s, but the question is whether it is detectable by your palate rather than just at the lab. Maybe if you use a metric crap-ton of hops in a low IBU beer you might get enough to notice, but most real-world scenarios are likely to fall below the typical detection limit.
Great response. My approach is similar, with the water being shut off a touch later and I’m usually stable just a touch lower. In any case, over or under, whirlpool hopping is definitely a great process.
I’ll give this a try myself in my next hoppy batch. Curious, if you feel you get more hop flavor by lowering the temp before adding your whirlpool/steeping hops, or is it just a method to limit bitterness without losing flavor?
If, for example, I’m brewing a DIPA that is clocking in around 100 IBU, then I’m not too worried about the bitterness. If it also adds flavor, then…
I like the flavor and aroma a bit better at the cool temp as well as being able to control bitterness. Hotter temps want to drive off more of the volatile aroma and flavor compounds - I’m sold on it. Try it and post what you think !
I drop the temp solely to limit IBU’s. For my massively hopped IPA’s where I don’t need to cap the bitterness at a certain level, then my only hop addition is at flameout after all boiling has stopped. I put in all my hops and whirlpool for 90 minutes. The hop flavor you get from this is immense. I certainly don’t feel like I’m losing any hop character versus a 170F whirlpool, but I’m also using over 4oz/gallon of hops in this recipe so I don’t know if you’d even notice a minor difference.
One thing I’ve noticed about an all-whirlpool hopped beer is that the bittering seems a lot smoother than you’d expect. I had my IPA measured and it was 98 IBU, but it tasted closer to a smooth 60 IBUs to my palate.
Interesting strategy. This is referred to as ‘hop bursting’ if I’m not mistaken? Assuming similar IBUs and same hops. What do you perceive to be the flavor differences between a beer that is FWH for all the IBUs and then 170F whirlpooled vs a beer that uses this massive hop bursting strategy?
I believe “hop bursting” is generally referring to using all your hops in the late boil (at 15 minutes or less), rather than just whirlpool hopping.
As far as the comparison between this method and using FWH or 60 minute additions for bittering with a 170F whirlpool, I can’t say that I’ve ever done an apples-to-apples comparison. I reserve the hot whirlpool method for IPAs where I’m not counting IBU’s, and use the 170F whirlpool for when I want better control over my IBU’s (like a Pale Ale, for example). I’m generally using less flavor hops in those beers as well, so I can’t say that I could draw a direct conclusion.
Generally speaking hop bursting is referring to late hopping or whirlpool hopping, but the ‘burst’ aspect is making up for the IBUs by increasing the amount of hops used.
