Hop Back Impact

Ingredients
1

For those of you who use a Hop Back or similar device, I’m curious what the impact (or lack of) would be on the below recipe. I don’t currently have one and probably won’t while I replicate this recipe. Keep in mind, this is for a 14 gallon recipe, I’d be scaling back for a 5 gallon.

First Wort - Chinook (28g pellets)
60 min - Warrior (amount varies pellets)
30 min - Columbus (56g pellets)
10 min - Amarillo & Simcoe (56g pellets ea.) Whirlpool - Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial (56g pellets ea.)
Hop Back - Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe (28g whole flowers ea.)
Dry Hops - Citra, Amarillo, Simcoe, Columbus, Centennial (56g pellets ea.)

2

I don’t have a hop back either. Adding the hop back hops to your whirlpool/hop stand would be the best bet IMO, provided you steep at 180 or less like I do. I like 170-175F best.

3

You need the hop back and counter flow/plate chiller in series. Aroma compounds don’t flash out of the beer, are chilled quickly.

The low temp stand is the work around, tough you will lose some aroma.

4

Haha, I’m going to brew with exact the same recipe and was wondering about the same thing. Was also going to add the hops to the whirlpool. BTW, there is an article by Mike Tonsmeire where he writes about things he bought or used that he finds underwhelming. The hopback is one of these things. Not sure whether the estimated colleagues on this forum agree.

5

I have not used mine as a hop back, as I don’t use it with a counter flow chiller. Use it as a Randal, and as a “Torpedo” for dry hopping.

6

I had a hopback and gave it away because it just didn’t seem effective compared to a whirlpool addition or dry hopping.

7

A hopback produces a different late hop effect than dry hopping or whirlpool hopping.  In my humble opinion (and it’s just that), a hop back is critical to reproducing many of the top-tier British beers.  The Peter Austin designed/Alan Pugsley installed breweries used a hop back as a way to add late hop essence and filter pellet and break material that made it past the whirlpool.  A hopback excels at that task.

I have been toying with the idea of adding a hopback to my brewery, so that I can switch to using pellets in the boil without having to use a hop spider, hop bags, or any other isoalpha reducing device.  I already own a counterflow chiller.  I currently brew with a false bottom and whole cones.

8

Edit: noticed this is 1 oz each, for a total of 3oz.  I’d still suggest moving half to whirlpool, half dry hopping.  If you use a counterflow / plate chiller, you can also stagger your whirlpool additions to wait until the wort is more than half drained from the kettle to have less contact time with the hot wort.  For American IPAs I think a hopback is a waste of hops. 5 to 10 minutes of contact time is not a lot.

9

I agree with this statement.  A hopback is not part of the American Pale or IPA hop profile.

10

If that’s the case, then I waste an exorbitant amount of hops.

11

Bumping this to see if anyone else has thoughts on the hopback part. I don’t have one and intended to just leave it out of the recipe.

12

Have to agree with Hoosier +1

13

I found the hopback to be nothing more than a filter.  I didn’t feel it added anything other than filtration IMO.

14

I am not saying that hopback does not have a place in American brewing.  What I am saying is that it does not produce the same effect as dry-hopping, which is a huge part of the American IPA hop profile.