Barley Wine: History, Brewing Techniques, Recipes (Classic Beer Style Series) by Fal Allen & Dick Cantwell

Author:Fal Allen & Dick Cantwell [Allen, Fal]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: CKB007000 Cooking / Beverages / Beer
ISBN: 9781938469268
Publisher: Brewers Publications
Published: 1998-04-01T03:00:00+00:00

Finishing Hops

Unlike the systems devised for the measurement of boiling hops (international bittering units [IBUs] or alpha acid units [AAUs]), there is no good quantitative system to help in the selection of hops to be used for late additions or as finishing hops. Conventional brewing wisdom dictates certain varieties as being particularly suitable for additions of flavor and aroma. Whether the varieties used are traditional or newfangled, finishing hops should always be chosen subjectively for their flavor and aroma. One of the best ways to tell if a particular variety of hops will work for you is to take a couple of hop cones or pellets, rub them between your palms, and then take a good whiff. This will give you an idea of what the hop aroma will be like in your final product, and whether you like it.

Finishing hops can be added to the kettle either at or toward the end of the boil or they can be added to the whirlpool or the hop back. The whirlpool (or swirl tank) is a cylindrical vessel large enough to hold the entire post-boil wort. The hopped wort is run or pumped tangentially into the tank, causing it to swirl around. The rotational momentum causes the solid matter (hops and trub) to gather in a cone-shaped pile on the bottom of the tank. The clear wort is then drawn off from the side.

The hop back is a smaller vessel (usually 5 to 20% the size of the kettle volume) fitted with a screen in the bottom that acts as a strainer. The strainer catches the hop flowers as the wort is drained from the kettle. The brewer can also put dry flower hops into the hop back to extract and capture the maximum amount of the hops’ volatile aromatic component. This is not the same as “dry hopping,” which involves hop additions in the fermenter, conditioning vessel, or cask. In recent years the hop back has lost practical favor to whirlpools in breweries where pellet hops are more frequently used. Some brewers, however, believe that nothing is as effective in adding fragile hop aromas as the hop back.

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