Dry hopping with Fresh Hops

[juliobrewer]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried dry (or call it wet hopping..?) hopping with fresh hops after fermentation for extra flavour and aroma. I'm playing around with experimenting with this in a IPA this fall with fresh hops from a local farm. I'm of course a little hesitant about adding fresh plant material direct from a field into beer post fermentation and potential infection issues that could arise from dabbling on the cold side of things.

Anyone think this is a viable idea or is it batsh*t crazy so to speak..?


Dave Woodward
Head Brewer
Tofino Brewing Co.

[Pompeiisneaks]

There are a lot of people that dry hop with 'wet hops' I've seen quite a few types of what many call a 'harvest ale' I've done it myself with my own hops, and it came out excellent, it does give a somewhat grassy flavor but that seems to tame down pretty quickly and the flavors were wonderful. There is no more risk of contamination from fresh hops than there are from pelleted or dried hops as the hops have antiseptic properties, and that is why they're used in beer. You still need to follow typical sanitation processes when opening a cold beer in a fermenter, sanitize anything you put in the beer, etc, though.

[gray31]

If you are worried about contamination treat the hops like you would any fresh veggie. Wash them in Luke warm water maybe a light spray of sanitizer, such as idophor and allow to dry off a bit. But in reality hops aren't treated before they are pelletized so I wouldn't worry to much. Historically hops where just added fresh or dried to the beer at what ever stage.

[juliobrewer]

"Bump"

Has anyone got specific amounts to use like lbs per barrel for effective flavour extraction?

Dave Woodward
Tofino Brewing Co.

[Luch15]

last fall I did both a Simcoe IPA and Citra IPA both wet hop. Both had dry hop of "wet hops" though they were quite dry by the time it was post ferment. Since from a weight standpoint they didn't weigh any more than "dry" leaf hops so I used my standard 1# per bbl. When brewing with wet hops I use 2.8 times the "dry" hop amount in my recipe. I really wanted to show off the hop aroma and flavor so i served them quite young, about 2 weeks brewday to tap. I don't have a lot of experience with wet hop brewing but it worked out pretty well, they were both very popular beers and sold out quickly.

[dabrewer]

Brewers

I done this many times...wet hops have a ratio of 5:1 wet to pellet for most uses. I have added them in hop bags to kegs or mesh bags to vessels. Either way, they will add flavor to beer like regular dry hop but with a little more grassy flavor. Assuming you will drink this quickly, I think you will be fine adding them without any sanitary worries.

Cheers

Dabrewer