Here is my thinking on why homebrewers shouldn’t expect to get the same results from the same hop schedule a commercial brewer uses, and why, in particular, hop additions made during the boil (i.e. other than FWH and whirlpool) are particularly ineffective for us (me.)
The reason FWH is so surprisingly effective at contributing flavor and aroma, and equally so on any scale system, is that the long steep allows the hydrocarbons to be converted to permanently soluble forms before they can be driven off, still in more volatile form, by the boil. This takes significant time on heat, but the same would apply in the whirlpool. With boil additions in a homebrew setting, with a very large surface area to volume, there is insufficient time for this solubilization to occur before the circulating action of the boil allows the volatiles to be evaporated at the surface. So those 30, 10, 5, etc. additions are not very effective for adding flavor and aroma, only (inefficiently) contributing to bitterness. On a commercial system, with a high volume to surface area (even a few-barrels-sized rig will make an enormous difference,) some solubilization of oils will occur before the entire wort volume is exposed at the surface, though these additions will still not be as effective or efficient at either bittering or adding flavor and aroma as other possible schemes. (Stan has written about some German brewers who are going with FWH and whirlpool with no middle additions.)
Therefore, no matter what larger breweries may be doing, a homebrewer is probably best advised to skip the middle and late hopping and just use FWH and knockout/ whirlpool additions, with a nice, efficient, 60 minute addition if additional bittering is needed, and apportioning those additions so as to achieve the desired result in balance of bitterness, flavor, and aroma.
What works for me, works for me.
goose
November 16, 2019, 9:09pm
22
FWIW, when I make my black IPA, I do a FWH addition then add no other hop additions before the last 30 minutes. I do a 30 and 10 minute additions and get the IBU’s I am looking for. Must be doing something right, the black IPA scored a 41 in a competition last weekend and took a silver.