Yep, you read that right…a friend posted about this over on Brews and Views (http://hbd.org/discus/messages/1/49344.html?1272059684), but I thought it might be interesting to get a discussion going here, too. Basically, hop solids are what you have left when you make hop extract. According to this article (http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?amp%3BDISPLAY=DESC&IA=US1997009166&DISPLAY=DESC), “It is unexpectedly been discovered that roasting hop solids results in two interesting benefits. First, the residual alpha acids in the hop solids are destroyed and the resulting hopped malt beverage is light stable. Second, roasting the hop solids further enhances the fruity/estery hop character imparted by the hop solids.” It’s kinda difficult to explain, so take a gander at the article.
And that is why you shouldn’t pick on smart people in High School… They create wondrous things. Denny, that’s awesome! I love that flavor. I didn’t catch in the article, but is anyone selling these yet?
Not as far as I’m aware. My friend Bob, who authored the B&V post that turned me on to this, made some himself and is doing a split batch to test them. I intend to try it myself as soon as I have time. Bob got the idea form an article Charlie P. wrote in Zymurgy.
Denny were Bob’s hop solids already stripped or did he roast regular hops?
From Bob’s post on B&V…
“According to the essay in the original link,I followed their process and I took two ounces of cascade and put them on a perforated pizza pan and let them sit for 208F for 8 hours. After that I let them cool for 30 minutes, dropped them in one of my 5 gallon kegs with a surescreen(I think you have one of those 
) installed and racked the finished beer on top of them. Of course like all hops they floated but after sealing the keg, hitting the keg with 32 psi of c02, bleeding the headspace and putting it on C02 again, I shook the bejeezus out of the keg and flipped it over a few times to hydrate the hops. I figure the alcohol(6.5%) in the beer will do a good job of leaching out all of the hop goodness after 10 days.”
[quote]However, it has been discovered that hop solids, a previously discarded byproduct, have great value and that they contain the precursors of “kettle hop” flavor and aroma (sometimes referred to as desirable fruity/estery
[/quote]
The continued value in brewing applications of the “spent hops” is a good thing. Wondering if any breweries will incorporate these hop solids into any recipes.