Hop Crazed

Welcome back to Off The Hinge Brewing!  I have a update for all you beer fans, plus some info on hopping techniques.  First off, it looks as if the Whirlpool Wheat beer is fermenting as planned.  A couple days ago I checked the gravity and found it was at about 1.018, which is right on for after primary conditioning.  The secondary phase should drop it down to 1.012, which is the desired final gravity.  I am skeptical of this so, I decided to add a bit more sugar and rouse the yeast in hopes to hit the target gravity.

I thought about peeling blueberries and adding them.  Why would I do that?  The reason behind this crazy thought was to play on the Mosaic hop flavor profile of blueberry.  I did not want the skin to change the color of the beer.  After peeling about five berries, I decided that it was too much work for such a little amount I would have added to the batch.  I wanted the hop to be the highlight.  I ended up just boiling those five berries with a 1/4 cup of corn sugar and then cooling it down to the temperature of the fermenting beer (68 F), so I would not shock the yeast.  Adding sugar will give the yeast more food to chew up and it will help to drop the gravity.

Hop additions are ready

I am crazy about hops!  Most people that know me would claim that I am just crazy, but what is important is that hops are fantastic.  I am always seeking out new ways to get the most out of hops.  There are many techniques out there and I will describe the techniques that I used in the Whirlpool Wheat.

First off, I reverted back to the old German tradition of 'First Wort Hopping', which I used on my last batch and was impressed by the scent it gave off (can't wait to try it).  It rounds off the perceived bitterness and emphasizes the flavors.  There has been taste test that have proved this idea.  You just add some aroma hops as your mashing out and proceed as normal.  

Next, I used a late hopping technique called, 'whirlpool hopping'.  This technique is gaining popularity and is used a lot in San Diego, California.  This is done by adding hops to the wort as your cooling it down.  It extracts fragile oils and increases the aroma.  There is a great article about late additions you should read if you have the time and here is the link, http://www.mrmalty.com/late_hopping.php

Lastly, I dry hopped, which is a common practice to improve aroma and flavor.  All you do is drop some hops into the fermenter after primary is done.  The reason you do not want to do it during the primary phase is that the C02 will push out most of the aroma you are trying to capture.  Last night, I dropped 2 oz. of Mosaic hops into the beer.  Dry hopping often has more grassy flavors compared to whirlpool, yet I have never noticed.

I hope that applying these techniques I will achieve different layers from a single hopped beer.  Next step is bottling in about 5 days.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.  I also need to brew, it has been over a week and I need my fix.  Remember to drink good beer responsibly and be merry. Cheers!