Mash Hopping Techniques Mitch Harris 5/2011

Basic Principles Hops added during Mashing impart: – strong flavor – some bitterness – zero aroma Donut beers – samples taken prior to carbonation and dry hopping show no aroma other than malt, but strong hop flavor.

Bittering Contribution How much bittering? Web resources indicated that mash hopping would yield about 25% of the hops potential (25% utilization for a typical mash hopping) Brewmate indicates 16% for a 60-minute mash Test results by comparison to non-mash- hopped beers indicate the 25% is closer to reality.

Ways to Mash-hop Mix with grains – provides complete mixing, no hassle. Hops are under-utilized, so used mostly for flavor. Add in hop sack – can re-use hops in boil, need to mash fairly wet and/or batch sparge while working the hop sack to make sure the wort works with the hops. Can be just during mash, or also during protein rest

Re-using Hops Hops that are used in mash-hopping should be reduced in α potential to 75% of the original value. Example: If 10 HBU are needed and you have ½ oz of 12% α Amarillo, ½ oz of 12% α Centennial and ½ oz of 10% Cascade in your hop-sack, then instead of 17 HBU, you will get about 13HBU from a long boil. This is also generally too high a level of bitterness for the beer, so my recipes usually throw out 1/2 to 2/3 of the hops used in the mash hop sack and boil for 60 min.

Flavor contribution The flavor contribution seems to be around double a 5-10 minute late addition flavoring for the same amount of hops. No hops are needed as late additions. Dry hopping can fill in the aroma. Result: recipes that use about half the amount of hops in very hoppy beers, particularly when the bittering hops are either re-used mash hops, or re-used dry-hopping hops.

Recipe #1 Mango Chutney Brown Ale Grains: 4lb Munich II, 4lb Maris Otter, 1lb crystal 80L, ¼ lb chocolate At mash: 1.5 oz centennial, mango chutney made from 3lb mangos, one serrano The hops were reused for 25min in a 30 min boil Fermented with 1272 Dry hopped in keg with 1/2z centennial

IPA (Maui Big Swell Clone) 10 lb Maris Otter, 1lb Vienna caramel 20L Mash hopped with ½ ea of cascade, citra, centennial, amarillo Boil 30 min with 25 minute addition of the hop sack Ferment with 1056 Dry hopped with ½ oz each of cascade, centennial, amarillo