HOP EVALUATION WITH HOP TEA

I’ve been sure for year that it was “Fuggles” plural

Well hey there,

While the majority of posts on this blog entail medium-to-fairly-extensive research, I’ve written a few simple, practical back-door premises into my list of post ideas so that once in a while I can recklessly indulge myself in a blog post that, while justified and dressed up, is little more than sipping beer or a beer-adjacent liquid and scribbling down my immediate thoughts.

There have been two such posts thus far (this and this), and I’d like to warmly welcome you to the third: an exploration of hop character using a fairly esoteric technique, the making of hop tea. While the proteins in, and low pH of, wort have positive effects on hop character that are tough to mimic with plain water, one can nonetheless obtain a fairly clear, and certainly interesting, profile of a hop varietal by making a simple tea with plain water, and as we’ll see, the results certainly merit the experiment.

The Method

Making hop tea is blessedly easy - simply take about 8 grams of hops (preferably whole cone), steep them in 170˚F water for, like, twenty minutes, pass through a coffee filter, and drink. That’s it. For this experiment, I used Saaz hops (a Czech hop that’s pretty representative of “Continental” Noble Hops, so think German/Czech Pilsner hops), Fuggles (the common alternative to East Kent Goldings, and one of the oldest hops used today - super British, very classic), and First Gold (a newer, high Alpha Acid - so, bitter - British hop that I’m using in that Golden Ale I brought up last week).

The following are my tasting notes and thoughts, followed by a large hop distributor’s descriptions of each, which I tried to forget to the greatest degree possible while evaluating these hops.

A disclaimer: all of these hops had been exposed to moderate amounts of oxygen, and thus were probably sensorally dulled somewhat.

Saaz

• The dry hops, straight out of the bag (whole cone)

  • Woah! Super fruity, a bit funky

  • Beyond that, vague pleasant floral vibe

• The hop tea

  • A bit of that funk on the nose

  • Mild spice, herbaceous in nature (so not rye-like)

  • Floral, vague flower tea

  • Kind of a quintessential “hoppy” hop; if this were North American, I’d say pine and resin

  • All in all, I can absolutely see this working in, duh, a pilsner, but also pretty much any lager; maybe even a cask ale or, hell, IPA! Clearly this is my favorite

• BSG’s take:

  • “Soft, pleasantly spicy and herbal with vivid woodsy, earthy, and dark floral character. Distinctively “hoppy” in pale worts. Rootstock grown elsewhere doesn’t have the same range or balance as Czech flowers.”

First Gold

• Dry hops (residue)

  • I dunno - orange aroma, thyme or marjoram or something, maybe lavender

  • Fairly earthy, not too unlike EKG

• Hop tea (I used hop pellets, making a murkier tea)

  • Nose is kind of brothy, maybe some turmeric

  • Also a bit of leek

  • Taste is @#$% horrible!

    • A bit pipe tobacco, dried flowers

    • A slight dank funk

    • Maybe citrus pith, orange/grapefruit pith

• Hopslist (BSG doesn’t sell it, I guess):

  • “It features a sweet tangerine and orange aroma with a trace of cinnamon. Its flavor is considered floral and fruity, like marmalade and magnolia.”

Fuggle

• Dry hops

• So familiar, but insanely hard to place

• Floral, maybe chamomile? I’m completely lost

• Hop tea (whole cone)

  • Aroma: strong gyokuro/green tea mild fermented funk (I have a tea friend - I recommend the stuff!)

  • Again, I get a mild turmeric vibe

  • Taste: mild, earthy, pleasant. Vague earl grey, vague pipe

  • Also, yeah, maybe a touch of that citrus thing...in earl grey, I think...bergamot, there it is

  • Crazy pleasant

• BSG:

  • “Earthy-sweet and round with warm wood and mild tree fruit aromatics, Fuggle is a pleasingly mild hop. Late additions and dry hop can break towards grassy. Often paired with Goldings.”

Conclusion

This was a fascinating experiment, and it was very fun to imagine how these flavors would play with the malt and ester character of the other elements in a beer, particularly a dark one or one brewed with a very personable base malt, but I also re-learned the importance of being very, very careful to keep oxygen out of your hops! 

I’d also note that if I were to grow my own hops, I wouldn’t even consider brewing with them until after I’d gone through this process, particularly since homegrown hops are whole cone by nature of the enterprise.

If you’d like to try this out, give me a shout and I’m sure I can rustle up some hop or other for you at MacLeod, but you could also go to the Home Wine, Beer, and Cheesemaking Shop and pick up an oz of several hops. Tell them the gallon beer guy sent you!

Cheers,

Adrian “Noble Hop IPA” Febre