First Wort Hopping

For first wort hopping what is the utilization, is it about 30%? Does it add any flavor? I’ve read it adds aroma. I’m just curious how to adjust my recipe if I even need to at all. Do you need to add aroma hops or is it taken care of with the First wort hopping.

Gordon Strong, in his new book “Brewing Better Beer”, lays it out.  He considers it about equivalent with adding hops at 20 minutes left in the boil, if I recall correctly.

In my experience it does add flavor, but the flavor is more subtle.  If you’re looking for forward hop flavor you may want to augment with a flavor addition.  You’re not going to get any aroma from it.

I did an all FWH ESB and while it was good, I wouldn’t do it again.  I want more hops, both in terms of bitterness (or the perception thereof) and flavor, than what FWH provide all on their lonesome.

Definitely makes a flavor contribution, no aroma.  For bitterness, lots of folks calculate it as equivalent to a 20 minute addition.  Personally, I tend to treat it more like a 65 minute addition.

+1  For my tastes, estimating the perceived bitterness of a FWH addition at 20 minutes just didn’t seem right.  I also treat my FWH additions like a 65 minute addition (as far as perceived bitterness is concerned).

I asked the same question a few weeks ago.  Seems like there are two camps.  Some think it’s comparable to a 20 minute addition, others think it adds much more bitterness than that.  I just brewed a very plain cream ale using only 1 oz of Cascade FWH to make up my mind for myself.  I’ve also added 1 oz of FWH and then 20g of Northern Brewer to a 60 minute boil and I will say it was not as bitter as I would have expected 1.75 oz of 8% AA hops added for a full 60 mins so I think the FWH bitterness was less than it would have been added at full boil.  I like the flavour but I’m not sure that I’m going to keep doing this.  I think it depends a lot on the type of beer I want to make.

I actually mentioned both in my book since there are obviously different opinions on it.

IBUs are real. They can be measured. FWH measures out to about the same as a 65 minute boil addition. That’s known.

But it doesn’t really always taste that way to me.  So I mentioned the 20 minute stat, and introduced the notion of real bitterness vs. perceived bitterness.  I haven’t done enough tests to decide when that holds true and when it doesn’t, but I know in some styles, the bitterness just seems less since it isn’t as harsh.

I guess I might treat is as a 20 minute addition in a hoppy beer and a 65 minute addition in a delicate beer.  I remember doing it in an APA and thinking that it wound up tasting more like a blonde ale.

There’s more to how you pick up bitterness on your palate than simply IBUs.  I also introduced the notion of BU:FG as a way of thinking about it.  It’s just kinda hard to do some of these tests since I don’t have lab equipment that can measure IBUs, and the real tests are expensive.