Anyone ever experiment with throwing some hops in a smoker’s water pan or adding a little in with the wood being smoked? Just curious if it would be delicious or taste like arse. ;D
Saw a video on the billy brew blog that showed how to make a hot sauce for chicken wings using a little bit of summit hops. Made me curious about other uses. Considering the aroma that leaves the hops when heated in water adding some to the water pan late in the smoking might add a touch of aroma but nothing too acrid.
I think as long as the hops are in water and the bottom of the pan isn’t directly on the coals, then you should be fine. I’m thinking that whole leaf hops would be best for this application since they will float on top. It has potential since most of the hop oils flash off by the mid 150’s F. I’m just wondering how much hops you will need to use to see some results.
Hmmmm…what hop(s) would go with chicken? Guess it depends on what you do with the chicken. If ya go the traditional BBQ route, probably something hearty…maybe even Fuggles. OTOH, if you were doing a “light” chicken with OO, lemon, garlic, maybe something more like an Amarillo or even Summit. Damn you, now you’ve got me curious!
I was planning on summit. I’m going to try the summit hot sauce on chicken in the smoker then try some with hops in the water. I’ll also throw some in with a lemon pepper rub.
Never tried this technique but I’d like to know if you get any flavor or aroma from it. I would think you’d have to add quite a bit of hops to get any effect but you never know until you try.