Why would I brew a 200-barrel batch of a beer based on an intriguing idea?
I wouldn’t. And that’s why breweries have pilot systems–to test ideas. Sometimes ideas are bright, the resulting elixirs rushed into production. And sometimes ideas are stupid.
I haven’t yet decided if my idea to smoke hops is a bad idea, but I do know that the extraordinarily minor experiment I conducted over the weekend wasn’t anything to get excited over.
Check out the cool mug that used to belong to my Gramps!
The Question: What if I smoked some hops (as in barbeque, not doobie), then “Randall-ized” them by dry hopping a beer?
The Possibility: An amazing synergy of beer and smoke-wafts for a dazzling, easily accessible smallbatch riff on a beer.
The Answer: It wasn’t all that cool.
Another Question: Why the heck not?
Another Answer: On a post-grilling-my-dinner-whim, I decided to toss a few pellet hops on the cool side of my (four-foot long) grill with a cedar plank for smoke sensations on the fire at the other end. After about 15 minutes on smoke, I put the pellets (Tradition, for the record) in my French Press with a homebrewed English Mild. After steeping for about five minutes, I pushed down the plunger and served myself up a mug of beer. As one would imagine, it had a heavier hop aroma and flavor, not to mention being a bit hazy. Smoke was no more than a hint, and far less than I was after though I wasn’t looking for a smoke bomb. The beer became vegetal, and not so yummy.
The path forward: Like I said, this incarnantion of the experiment was a whim. If it’s to truly reveal an interesting beer to brew in a larger quantity, a second trial, likely with whole leaf hops and a good deal more time in a more carefully designed cold-smoking setup, will need to take place. It, too, may result in lameness, but then again, I’m not brewing 250 barrels (or even five gallons) of the stuff. And I’d advise you to not fool with it either. At least not yet…
Another question: What else am I going to do on a Sunday evening?
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On twitter I questioned the use of wood vs propane, but you set me straight.
Also, I wonder if hop pellets are the best choice in this situation. While you “smoked” the pellets, the strength of the pellet is the increased surface area when submerged and broken apart. The smoked/unsmoked surfaces ratio would decrease significantly when added to liquid.
As a lover of smoke, I’m unwilling to accept this experiment as failed. Maybe some fresh whole cones, using an offset smoker as kiln for the hops. You then wouldn’t be exposing unsmoked hops to the liquid nor would you be running the risk of imparting an old, dried out hop flavor into your beer.
Hmmm…now we just have to wait for the fresh hops to arrive…
I wouldn’t say it’s failed either, just a quick question answered. As I said before, the next step is with whole leaf hops, and you’re right: fresh hops would be even better, I’m sure. That’s not so easy for me to come by, though I have found wild ditch hops growing not far from my home (not very characterful hops–I’ve brewed with them to check). We’ll see what happens. Feel free to do your own trials.
Interesting thought. Might be a volume issue too. Home smoked grains = multi pounds of them to make it worthwhile. Pellet hops, or for that matter whole you are at best going to do a few ounces (with what hops cost etc..).
The cold smoke is definitely the way you’d want to go. I suspect whole hops would burn up before they became smoky if you used heat. You don’t want caramelized, you want smoky..
Naturally all of this is just opinion.. Thats why I love home brewing because you can try stuff like this stuff!
Hot smoking might work aslong as you keep them “wet” I would soak them in water or maybe even a cider or possibly the brew that it is intended to go in. If you cold smoke them Alton Brown made a great settup on an episode of good eats “scrap Iron chef ” episode that you use for making bacon. If you go the cold smoke route I would use them as flavor hops in a full out brew session. Also leave them in the smoke a long time and green hops would work best If you want I should have couple oz of williams in a month or two only one of the three binds i planted three years ago that did any thing. hoping for about a 5 to 6 oz harvest this year.