Hopping Strategies

[Ted]

Can anyone explain what is exactly gained by adding hops at any time other then at the beginning of the boil for bittering; and dry hopping post fermentation for aroma?
For example what, other then for some bittering, do I gain from hopping at at 30,15,0 min. If a great deal of the aroma is scrubed out during fermentation, it seems like I would be better served to use high alpha hops for bittering in the beginning of the boil and dry hop for aroma after a strong primary fermentation is complete.
Anyone done any studies or split batches?
Ted

[tavish2]

You are missing out on a major component here. There are several things hops do including but not limited to: bittering, texture, flavor, aroma, and preservitives. Different points in the boil do different things as far as the three major ones (bitterness, flavor, aroma) go. Its a spectrum of this:


Beginning of boil: |-------------------------------|------------------------------------|>End of boil
--------------> Most Bitterness here ----------->Some Bitterness Here--------------->Less Bitterness here
--------------> Some Flavor here--------------->Some More Here-------------------->Less Flavor here
--------------> Less Aroma here---------------->Some Aroma Here------------------->Most Aroma here

[heliboy]

Just a restatement. If you want max bittering and flavor from your hops, use the appropriate style for 60 mins. If you feel you have the time, try boiling the hops by themselves as recommended from basicbrewing.com and get better extraction. The thicker the wort and highter the gravity the less extraction you will get out of the same hops when the wort has the malt in it versus water only. I've tried this experiment and did get a noticeable higher hoppiness. During the hop shortage, I've cut back on flavoring at less than 30 mins because to me it's wasting my small hop stash. I've dry hopped once and since I think my beers smell great already, I don't waste the hops for this area either. I'm sure some will argue the benefits of late hop additions, but since I make mostly strong belgian ales, I'm not too concerned. If you can get some hops in liquid form, they work great too. I use about a 1/2 oz of pellets in the boil for 60 mins and then use a teaspoon or so of the liquid when racking to secondary. I've had great results with the liquid hop extract.

[Ted]

I agree with everything stated, I especially appreciate the diagram by tavish2, but I have to challenge the notion that you can percieve a flavor from hops other then bitterness. The tongue can only percieve 4 major 'tastes' bitterness, saltiness, sourness and sweetness.
The nose on the other hand can smell hundreds of compounds, hop aroma being one of them. This with hop bitterness creates a 'flavor' that the brain puts together and we associate as a single experience.
I'm just simply wondering if by playing with the amount (and type) of hops if you can mimic a traditional hopping schedule for something like an double IPA with 4+ additions of hops with just two, at the beggining maximizing bittering potential (which we can taste) and dry hopping post fermentation maximizing the aroma (which we can smell)
Ted

[siwelwerd]

I think you're missing the point when you say "taste" is limited to bitter, salty, sour and sweet, and so the only flavor from hops is bitterness. Hop flavor generally means what you perceive when the beer is in your mouth (both taste and smell), whereas hop aroma means while it's in your glass. You're not going to get the same flavors (or aromas) with just a bittering addition and dry hopping.

[BadRock]

Along the same lines, has anyone ever used the "French Press" method for late hopping? I am thinking of doing it instead of dry hopping and am curious what others have found using this method.

[chaos2u]