Feedback on hop tea

jay3847

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I just did an experiment with some leftover hops to try and educate my palate a bit. I was surprised by what I experienced and would like thoughts from you all.

I made a quick tea from (one at a time) Mosaic, Simcoe, Centennial, and Nugget. I heated water to 185, put one and one half pellet in a tea strainer, and poured 1/4 water over the pellet. I got an initial smell, let it steep longer, smelled again, small sip, rinse through my mouth and drank a bit. I tried to aerate when I could to get the real sense of the hop.

Mosaic: this was first and I didn't put as much hop in (1 pellet). Definitely got fruit smell but no taste. Only slightly bitter.

Simcoe: Not much smell, just normal hop greenery. Swished in my mouth and the bitterness attacked. Yowza. A bit like cayenne on the side of my tongue.

Centennial: Dank! Definitely bitter but not as crazy as the Simcoe.

Nugget: No floral at all just bitter attack. Jeez!

Any thoughts on methodology or conclusions?
 
Great idea, Jay! I used to make a hop tea and kept it in a bottle in the fridge for whenever a friend came over to try my beers. I prefer the less hopped beer, while he enjoyed the hoppier beers. So whenever he came over, I always added some hop tea to his beer. He then enjoyed his while I enjoyed mine - both made instantly from the same source beer. it's also a great way to learn the flavors of different hops, although it's difficult to determine the proper concentration to determine that.
 
try just using your smell by cooking about 6 pellets at a time
 
Variables like temp of water when steeping, how much water to use (so as not to dilute), how long to steep, how much to hop to steep. All great questions. Just makes me want to try again, and then do some malt tests in a similar way.
 
Variables like temp of water when steeping, how much water to use (so as not to dilute), how long to steep, how much to hop to steep. All great questions. Just makes me want to try again, and then do some malt tests in a similar way.
Briess has some instructions on their website for doing malt tests at home. I've been meaning to try it out
 
Smash beers are a great way to test not only hops, but malts as well. Plus they give you something delicious to drink!
 
What temp, Ozark? Also, since most of smell comes from the drinking process do you suggest sipping it or not.
I'd use boiling water to simulate the boil. If you're simulating a hopback, 180 degrees F should be about right. Test as closely as possible to the conditions you'll use.
 
To complete this chain, I did the malt sensory test (sort of) comparing Pilsner malt, Marris Otter and Pale Ale LME (because I didn't have 2 row). All 1.026, all at the same temperature. Very interesting.

Granted, the LME has already been boiled, but I was amazed at how much caramel and molasses I tasted in it. The color of the two grains was interesting as was the very slight difference. I though pilsner was more like crackers and maris otter more like bread. Both a similar sweetness (go figure), but the after taste was the biggest difference. The pilsner was much dryer at the finish and the sugar taste lasted long for the maris.

The filtration I did was less than successful, but I did end up with enough to try.

I think I'll do this again with some specialty malts.
 

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I did something similar like this with some home roasted malts awhile back it's interesting to taste the malts alone without the hops and yeast fermentation clouding it up.
 

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