FWH - Oh, yeah, baby!

[RobZamites]

Well, to continue the thread started elsewhere, I'm going to share with you my hopping schedule for my pale ale. My pale isn't anything way over the top, a 55 IBU , 13P wort using WLP002. My old hopping schedule was #1.5 of bittering hops (12% AA) for 75 minutes, #1.5 of flavor hops for 20 minutes and then dry hopping with #7 at VDK rest time.
Well, with the FWH, I used the same amounts of hops, but, I gotta tell you, tasting the finished beer with my boss today, we were both smitten with how smooth and refined the flavor and bitterness were. We debated the merits of dry hopping, and came to the conclusion that the aroma present was *at least* as present and pungent as the previous batches! Result? I'm saving #7 of hops and giving my patrons what is, in my opinion, a superiorly bittered and flavored pale ale.
It's my understanding that some brewers do all their beers using the FWH process; I'll experiment with a couple of more batches to see (in my limited, non-laboratory organoleptic method -- i.e. tasting and smelling..) if I'll be joining suit.
Your mileage may vary, but I, for one, welcome my new tool...first wort hopping.

Cheers,

Rob

[Sauce]

Rob,
Could you give a few more specifics on what you did?

Did you FWH both the bittering and your flavoring additions?

Any extra time "steeping" in the first wort before you started introducing sparged wort?

Did you heat those first wort runnings any (up into the 165-170 range)?


Did you notice any additional flavor contribution in addition the the perceived aroma?

Thanks

JackK

[Sauce]

one more Q

Oh yea, what was your batch size?


JackK

[RobZamites]

This was a KF of 8 bbls of wort. The only hops that were FWH's were the bittering hops. I did a standard add for the favoring hops. I basically weighed out the first charge of hops, tossed 'em in the kettle, then started running off from the lauter tun. I didn't steep them at all, just did my normal runoff and sparge, and I started applying steam when the wort level had submerged my temp probe (about 3 bbls). The wort was at 195F by the time I hit KF, and the wort tansitioned nicely into a boil with nary a foamy beast raising its head.
As I stated, the flavor was much more refined and smooth as compared to previous batches -- almost like a batch that had conditioned for a few weeks. The rough edge that the hops normally lent the beer were practically non-existant and my boss and I both agreed that dry hopping was probably not a necessity.