I recently purchased a Hop Rocket, and last night was my first attempt using it as a Randall. I had an IPA, through which I filtered 2 oz of flowers (1 oz Citra, 1 oz Amarillo). The first and last pints off the keg were incredibly grassy. I doubt that it had to do with the hop varieties, but maybe a short contact time with the hops? I dont know- I am really disappointed since I bought the device for mainly Randall purposes. Anybody have a remedy for this issue? It seems most people’s issues are with it are with foaming with seemingly no mention of grassiness.
I say the first and last pints off the keg were grassy because I had 2 pints last night and when I got home from work today I found my four kegs + 20 lbs CO2 tank floating in IPA…before cleaning everything up, I drew one final grassy tasting pint of the keg. Everything seems to be hooked up properly, even the $30 I spent in Blichmann quick connects. Seems to be leaking from the bottom clamp. ? Huge kick to the nuts. I hope that someone has the answer for how to avoid grassy-ness in the future.
Given the limited responses (and thanks to those that did), maybe I should change my question to:
Is there anyone out that believes that they get anything other than a grassy flavor from their Randall?
If not, I believe that I will try it as a hop back and see what the effects are. Seems that many posts are positive with regard to using the Rocket as a hop back (e.g. picking up hop aroma). I am not concerned with filtering/clarify the beer since I have a hop sock like mesh screen in the kettle (pre Therminator).
My experience with dry hopping vs hop stand (i.e. long flame-out hop rest) is that dry hopping leads to a more grassy flavor. To extrapolate this to the Randall, I would think that a more grassy flavor would be typical for a Randall since it is similar to dry hopping.
Just to speculate here, I wonder what the average extraction times for various hop flavor components are. In the Randall, for example, the beer has a much shorter contact time with the hops compared to dry hopping. This should impact the flavor profile you are getting from both methods.
I think using it as a hop back is a great idea. You may want to play (in other words take notes) with the flow rate when you do this.
In my opinion, Randall’s are serving gimmicks.
In my experience, Randall + cold beer = grassy flavors.
Dry hopping cold = grassy flavors, although, they do condition out with enough time.
Dry hop warm = no grassy flavors, tasty and aromatic.
Agree that they are mostly gimmicks but that said, you can have a good randall experience. The trick is to use a high gravity beer such as a IIPA. The higher alcohol level helps to dissolve and extract the acids. My 9% IIPA through the randall picks up an extra hop punch and the grassy flavors are subdued. That said, I probably prefer my IIPA fresh sans Randall treatment. But a few times when the beer was a little long in the tooth with the hop character somewhat faded the randall treatment perked it up nicely. And in those cases I much preferred the randalized beer over the straight IIPA. YMMV.
I use my Hop Rocket as a hop back and sometimes when I am transferring some beer from a five-gallon keg into a 2.5-gallon keg to take to a beer tasting. I generally try and transfer the beer a few days in advance to let the hop flavor “settle”. I also like the fact it helps clear the beer a bit when it gets run through the hops. I don’t like the Hop Rocket as a randall though… too grassy. But I do agree that it might be good for IIPAs given majorices’ previous comment.
I agree with Tim’s assessment of Dry Hopping. I find temp to be a much bigger factor in grassiness of dry hops than the oft-cited “too much contact time.”