Provoak Hops

[Beer-lord]

Sounds interesting but until someone I trust tries them, I'm not interested enough.

Provoak™: Complex and noble flavors with both hops and oak for innovative beers.

The first of its kind, Provoakis a proprietary blend of hops and oak in T-90 pellet form that imparts barrel-aged character in your beer. Provoak comes in two distinct versions: Toasted American Oak and Untoasted German Oak.

https://www.yakimavalleyhops.com/produc ... 18crop.htm

[BlackDuck]

Very interesting.


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[mashani]

I might buy some. If I do I will let you know what I think.

[mashani]

So... I bought 2oz of the 'Merican kind and 2oz of the European kind.

I am going to be brewing some English beers where I think a little bit of this might be nice, so we will see.

[Beer-lord]

Looking forward to your thoughts on them.

[mashani]

So they already showed up in the mail today. I wasn't expecting to get them anywhere near this quickly. So an English beer with a bit of them will likely be my weekend project. Not sure if I should add them @flameout or dry hop them... ???

I guess I will crush up a pellet and smell/taste it and see what's up with them.

[Beer-lord]

There's almost no information about these anywhere to find out. As time goes on, I guess we'll hear more about them.

[Kealia]

Interesting. I use oak cubes in my Firestone Double Barrel Ale clone along with some Fuggles. Could be a substitute, I suppose.

But I have other hops that need to be used so I'll likely just sit back and listen to what y'all have to say about these.

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[mashani]

Well, I found this... it gives a good flavor/aroma profile for each variety. These are the people who developed it, it seems...

https://www.johnihaas.com/wp-content/up ... _PRINT.pdf

The PDF calls it a dry hopping hop with 7 days of contact time, but this suggests late hopping is also an option.

https://www.johnihaas.com/blog/spotligh ... llet-form/

[mashani]

So I brewed up a 6 gallon batch of a special bitter like thing, 10# Pale, 1# English Medium Crystal, 1/4# special roast, 1/4# midnight wheat.

It had 1/2oz of First Gold for bittering, and a mix of 1/2oz of Fuggles, 1/2oz First Gold and 1/2oz of the American Provoak hops split between @15 and whirlpool/slow chill addition.

I will taste the hydrometer sample and then maybe throw another 1/2oz of the American Provoak in as a dry hop.

We will see what that does.

I tasted them, can't say that I got the "oak" strongly by tasting a pellet, but it might require contact time to extract that flavor. They did taste like they will make good beer though seems to be a "fruit salad" kind of hop. There are real hops in it, I saw some post somewhere where someone suggested they were just wood + hop oil or something... that does not seem to be the case.

[mashani]

FWIW, when I racked this to my fermenters today after the long slow chill, there was slight and pleasant toasty oak like element to the aroma, so maybe it works.

[Beer-lord]

I guess the learning curve is just how much to use and when to use these hops. Can't wait to hear your final thoughts on these.

[mashani]

My guess at this point is contact time is going to be important here, so dry hop or a commando late addition / whirlpool are gonna be the thing to do. I didn't notice any oaky aroma when I tossed them in.

My "whirlpool" when I slow chill in the mash & boil is effectively like a 4-5 hour at various temperature whirlpool, so I get a lot (like everything including lots of bittering) out of the hops used. Since the lid is on with a stopper, I don't lose the aroma compounds, they just condense on the lid and falls back in once it starts to chill down.

I may dry hop this too with another 1/2oz, we will see. I don't want to use a ridiculous amount of them here, this is supposed to be a special bitter, not an American APA/IPA.

I might do a dry Irish stout next and just throw 1/2oz in as a dry hop for shits and giggles though.

Maybe I'll try a little bit of the Euro ones in a Kolsch. I would guess old school German beers came out of a cask back in the olden days, so why not.

[mashani]

So, FWIW, I bottled this and judging the hydro sample, the amount of hops I used made my S-04 yeast taste like I used WLP013 London Ale Yeast (that yeast fermented at proper temperatures makes oak like esters that are wonderful).

The oak is mellow, but it is there, both in taste and aroma.

[mashani]

So, I am brewing another beer with these, an IPA. Mostly Viking extra pale malt, with some Munich and 10L crystal. I am using 1.5oz of Eurika, 1.5oz of Calypso, 3oz of Medusa, and 1.5oz of the American Provoak in all. I'll end up using the Lallamand NEIPA yeast for it even though this isn't an NEIPA because I have a lot of it.

I figured I'd give it a shot and throw a good bit in since there are oaked IPAs out there that would call for 1oz of oak cubes for 5 gallons, and I'm making 6 gallons, and there are hops mixed with the oak here. I don't think this will be overwhelming based on how the other beer came out, but it will for sure be noticeable.

Will let ya know how it turns out.