Hopping strike water?

[admin]

Now that we have all these hops and will be struggling to use them all, wondering has anyone tried hopping their strike water, or hopping their mash, or hopping in bottles, or in the glass glass hopping?

[Spud395]

Did see a vid where they hopped the strike water and mash hopped.

Hop cocktails perhaps, Vodka with your hops of choice

[LordEoin]

I tried dry-hopping bottles once to see the different aromas of different hops without having to brew them individually.
It works well, and the hop matter settles nicely and stays in the bottle if you pour gently.
But you have to chill them right down before opening or you'll get champagne style gushers that kick all the hops and yeast back in. :-/

I also have some hops-cubes in the freezer that I add to commercial beer when I want to leave my homebrew stash build up a bit again.
Just put the hops in your cafetiere, steep in boiling water, then plunge the hop matter out, freeze in an icecube tray.
If you want flavor or bittering, boil them in a saucepan and then use the plunger to get the mush out.
They started off as an experiment, but they're really good for a) trying hop combinations and b) making cheap boxes of bud/carlsberg taste awesome. 

If you're going to add this concentrate directly to individual bottles, do it AFTER filling the bottle and cap it quickly before it all foams up.

Finally, hopspressos! basically putting hops into the espresso maker instead of coffee grinds.
It makes super potent hoppy addition, but clogs the filter with oily hop matter, so i wouldnt recommend it...

If you're doing allgrain or partial, you could do some first wort hopping with low alpha aroma and noble hops.
Not tried it myself, but worth playing with...

[Will_D]

Brilliant advice - I love radical approches!

Now for one NOT to try:

Working on the knowledge that good Poitín makers used to steep their barley in the bog before germination.

Plus the fact that turf smells vaguely smoky before its lit

I tried this experiment to make "Turf Tea":

37 gms off of a briquette, 370 mls of boiling water.

Mash/steep for 10 mins and taste a drop:

Result: Phenol / TCP / Ughhh!!!!!

Don't try this at home

Will

[Padraic]

@ lord eoin, good tip re the cafetiere/ ice cubes!

I've also heard of people just putting a cheap can of lager into a cafetiere and straining some hops, you get hoppy but flat beer, might be a good way to use up any cans left behind after a party!

Might be an interesting tasting idea for trying different hops with the same base beer?

[LordEoin]

@ padraic - yeah, the cubes are awesome for that. One of my favorites was 1 cube amarillo, 1 cube cascade, half cube magnum. Turns a can of budweiser into a cloudy hoppy craft beer 

@ will - lol, turf tea. now i've heard it all... might go well with a ROCKbun or a SANDwich  :

[MAF]

There was a pub in the UK recently which gave you the option of 'dry-hopping' your pint; They gave fresh hops with a coffee press, and you add your beer and your choice of hops, then add the infusion into your pint. Not sure how effective it was but it'd simple to try it out (except I don't have a coffee press!)

[rukkus]

I'll bring one to the next meetup. The glass part of the press are also great for a yeast flask