Just wondering if anyone has actually experimented with reusing hops that were previously used for dryhopping? What experience could you pass along?
Seems, in theory, that the bittering compounds should still be intact.
Normally with a freezer stuffed with hops, I would not consider this.
But I recently kicked a keg of West Coast Bitter that went super fast, and the dryhop package was an ounce each of Columbus, Amarillo, Simcoe and Citra. I am interested in brewing this bitter a lot, and with those trademarks at the end there…it just got me thinking about recycle.
+1 After all the control we need to have in our craft, using previously used hops would add a huge variable for little savings and if the beer turned out great you’d have a hard time duplicating your efforts.
Do a side by side experiment, see how it comes out. No reason not to, if you want to re-use them, but like the above poster said, you may not be able to duplicate the results. But I say try it.
I make what I call the Recycler IPA from time to time, it’s a lot of fun to do and it goes something like this:
10 gallon mash tun full to the top, use the first runnings to brew a 5 gallon big double IPA, collect the second runnings for the Recycler IPA for a second boil. The double IPA has a ton of late whole leaf hops, including 6 oz at zero. Now I love wasting hops as much as most hop heads but I got to thinking I would use those late hops to bitter the second runnings beer. After chilling and transferring there’s a bunch of hop cones left in the boil kettle. Take a guess and how many AA’s you are looking at, consider how many you want for the Recycler boil, then scoop out a bunch and discard. In my case I typically leave about 40% in the kettle to be the first wort hops for the second beer. Proceed with whatever hop schedule you have in mind for the smaller beer.
Now you have a big and a little IPA fermenting side by side. I like to cold crash both beers and keg them at the same time, then let them warm up for a day before dry hopping. I dry hop in a keg with an irresponsible amount of whole cone hops in a mesh bag. I dry hop the double first with a closed transfer by running a jumper over to the dry hop keg for a few days, then right back to the serving keg, chill, carb and enjoy. Same procedure for the Recycler beer, only using the same dry hops for a second time. I have found that I get an amazing amount of aroma, even with the second use, and it kind of works to scale when you go from the big beer to the little one.
Now I suppose you could recover those dry hops and use them to bitter another beer, but as tomsawyer said, bittering hops are cheap.
You can read of British brewers doing this in old times. It was also discussed and done by some during the hop shortage in 2008. Some I know have done it, I never have.
So you can bitter with them, albeit in an uncontrolled way.
How about using them later in the boil…flavor? Any thoughts on that?
I suppose all the unknowns and lack of repeatability would be a bit risky, especially in this time of plenty.
But I guess when things get apocalyptic, :
I could experiment with a cyclic American bitter that is trashy enough to be different every time.
During the GaSHA (Great and Scary Hop Apocalypse) of 2008, brewers were experimenting with this. Reports that I saw reported about a 30% reduction in bittering potential.
So, if you do try it, try that a factor and see if that doesn’t get you close to the ball park.
Here’s an idea for a cyclical brew. Batch #1 - kegged, dry-hopped & tapped. Batch #2 - in fermenter waiting to be kegged. When Batch #1 kicks, the dry hops from the keg become FWH for Batch #3, while Batch #2 gets racked to the keg with new dry hops.
I did something like Tim there did. I recently brewed a double IPA (Surly Abrasive clone) with 3 oz of Citra at flameout.
Then I brewed a partigyle IPA, using the flameout Citra as FWH. It worked really well, actually. Now the IIPA is kegged, with 3 oz Citra in the keg too. I’m tempted to do what you were thinking and try to get some more mileage out of my Citra, but I may skip it.
I think it would work, if it came down to it. You’d have to do some experimentation to see what the effects are.
