Re-Hopping

[John Sand]

I've saved some 10 month old IPA, but it has lost most of it's hop flavor. I can drink it as another style, (some kind of string ale?) or I can experiment on it (insert evil scientist laugh) . I thought of making some strong hop tea and adding a bit to each glass. Has anyone tried this? I have tea hopped brews in the fermenter before, never in the glass.

[jimjohson]

don't know, but seems like that'd make it go flat

[Beer-lord]

I've not used it yet but look at the Randall Jr from Dogfish Head Brewery.

[FrozenInTime]

Bottled or keg'd? Keg'd would be fairly easy, but bottled, don't have a clue.

[Brewbirds]

Got any dark beer? Maybe you could make some black and tans.

[mashani]

Since I tend to brew more malty IPAs, when they get to the point yours are at (rarely, I usually drink them sooner), I consider them "English IPAs" and just happily consume them.

I think strong hop tea added to it might work well though as long as you just add it immediately before drinking. If it dilutes a bit, you can just say it's a "session IPA" and drink more of it!

[John Sand]

Thanks guys. I started tonight by "bottle-hopping" a couple, and an old Irish Red. I remembered that I'd read about adding hops to bottles of light beer to taste the different hop flavors. So I opened a few bottles and added 1-1.5g hop pellets. I know that standard brewing theory holds that dry hops add no bitterness. I suspect that a lengthy boil extracts more bitterness, and perhaps bonds it to other elements in your brew. But if you taste cold hops, they're bitter. Other brewers have tried cold steeping hops in water, and found it bitter. So I hope for both flavor and bitterness from the bottle hopping. But I still plan to do a boil and try the hop tea. I'd like to make it very strong, so that a tablespoon will bitter the beer. That way it should neither be flat nor weak.

[John Sand]

Okay. The short answer is, it works. I tried a bottle of old IPA to which I'd added 1g of Centennial. Much improved after one week bottle-hopping at room temp. I'm going to do the rest, and maybe skip the hop tea.

[Brewbirds]

So these bottles did not end up as gushers John?

I seem to remember reading that hops particles were a major player in that problem as they provided nucleation sites for CO2 to "coagulate" vs. being dispersed throughout the liquid mass.

[mashani]

I've never got gushers from random hop bits. Since I commando hops, I sometimes get some into a bottle.

Now random bits of coriander seed husk - that's different.

So I think perhaps it requires more of a hard surface that doesn't get soppy with beer to get the gusher effect. The more flat exposed surface area the worse it will be too I'm sure.

[John Sand]

I was kind of surprised too. I'd read that adding anything to carbonated beer would cause gushing. But it didn't. I tried both chilled and warm bottles, no overflow.

[John Sand]

Further results: I opened two more bottles today, not entirely successful. Both had 1.5g hops, both foamed and had numerous hop floaters. I'm not sure if it was the higher hop rate, or the temp at which they were added. I hopped a couple of bottles warm, and a couple cold. But I didn't label them accordingly. The bottle with the tightest neck also had blockage. I'll continue to experiment, and post for posterity!

[John Sand]

Phase II: I hopped two more bottles, 1g@. Centennial in the IPA, Fuggles in the Irish Red, for seven days. Before refrigerating, I tapped the neck of each bottle to sink the hops. Last night I drank both with my wife. Both beers improved, and were good. The IPA was somewhat grassy, which is okay. The Red was still a little too sweet, maybe because Fuggles is mild.