Liquid hop extract

MashBag · Jan 26, 2025

Anyone used this?

Being the self acclaimed idlest brewer round these parts, I though this could replace dry hopping? (Not one of my favourite things)

Indeed after a couple of shandies last night I was contemplating making a base ale & hopping the bottles differently when priming?

Perhaps I should give up drinking.... Or is that thinking

jof · Jan 26, 2025

Like you, I don't dry hop.
But as I had a request for something hoppy I was wondering about making a hop tea & adding on bottling day

Bitter_Dave · Jan 26, 2025

Until you become a kit brewer I think there are some of us more idle than you ;-)

I tried goldings hop oil some time ago. Details are blurry. I think I added it to the king keg (before I started bottling) and I remember thinking that it didn't seem noticeable. I finished up the bottle, so I must have used it more than once. Of course goldings are always going to be more subtle than the new world hops. The bottle smelled glorious though, like a hop perfume!

Druss · Jan 26, 2025

I use them quite regularly, so far I've tried the whole range that Cross My Loof used to offer (Citralicious, Outback, Nectaron, Kentish Gold) across various AG and kit beers and I've found them quite hit and miss.

I've always found dry hopping to be a bit of a hassle, so the idea of hop oils really appealed, nothing groundbreaking though.

The best result so far was a basic light ale (100% Maris) with about 25 drops of Citralicious per gallon. I only used it with half the batch to compare the two and it was really nice. The flavours are a bit too subtle in my opinion though.

Stu · Jan 27, 2025

I was talking to some folks about this over the weekend. It's all the rage (along with Cold IPAs).
Sounds very interesting. It does seem to be quite expensive, but I also understand the benefits.

As a NEIPA lover, I dry hop a lot. I do have a hop bong, to be fair, but this could still be a game changer using magnets.

Northern_Brewer · Jan 27, 2025

MashBag said:
Being the self acclaimed idlest brewer round these parts, I though this could replace dry hopping? (Not one of my favourite things)

Indeed after a couple of shandies last night I was contemplating making a base ale & hopping the bottles differently when priming?

It has to be said that traditional extracts of hop flavour (as opposed to bittering extracts) don't have a great reputation - there used to be a commercial brewery I knew that used them for almost all their beers and you could tell a mile off, they just weren't very good.

That's changed a bit with the new generation of hop extracts from the big hop producers, like Barth-Haas Spectrum, which are now widely used by commercial producers of hazies who want to add hop flavour without the grassiness that comes from the green material. But there's still some debate whether you use them exclusively or in combination with "real" hops, it's up to your personal taste I guess but by definition these products will always have something missing compared to the original hop.

Bitter_Dave · Jan 28, 2025

CML sell isomerised hop extract to add bitterness to beer and hop oil to add aroma etc. That means you could make your own beer kit in theory by adding these to malt extract + your own choice of yeast. No idea what that would be like in practice, but it's an interesting idea.

Bitter_Dave · Jan 29, 2025

Des

Druss said:
I use them quite regularly, so far I've tried the whole range that Cross My Loof used to offer (Citralicious, Outback, Nectaron, Kentish Gold) across various AG and kit beers and I've found them quite hit and miss.

I've always found dry hopping to be a bit of a hassle, so the idea of hop oils really appealed, nothing groundbreaking though.

The best result so far was a basic light ale (100% Maris) with about 25 drops of Citralicious per gallon. I only used it with half the batch to compare the two and it was really nice. The flavours are a bit too subtle in my opinion though.

I'm quite tempted to have another go with hop oil, adding some drops direct to the bottle at bottling stage. Obviously, I appreciate it's going to be muted but would be interesting to compare bottles with and without oil. And no harm done in any case (except he minor cost). Aside from the citra one, were there any others you liked?

Druss · Jan 29, 2025

Bitter_Dave said:
Aside from the citra one, were there any others you liked?

It seems to depend quite heavily on the style of beer, I found that the 'Kentish Gold' oil worked very well in bitters but tasted a bit muddled in light ales, I added the 'Nectaron' to a cask ale (which I ended up decanting into a keg) and that was lovely but I'm unsure if that was the hop oil or the process as it was a bit of a non starter in bottles.

I haven't tried mixing them, but my gut says that a couple of drops of Citralicious and a couple of Nectaron per bottle of any lighter ale or possibly lager, would probably work very well.

stubrewworx · Jan 29, 2025

Also tried the CML citralicious. A few drops per can of Aldi lager.... nothing.

A few drops per bottle of homebrew ipa... nothing.

Shame. I know other products/brands are available but kinda put off.

Bitter_Dave · Jan 29, 2025

Druss said:
It seems to depend quite heavily on the style of beer, I found that the 'Kentish Gold' oil worked very well in bitters but tasted a bit muddled in light ales, I added the 'Nectaron' to a cask ale (which I ended up decanting into a keg) and that was lovely but I'm unsure if that was the hop oil or the process as it was a bit of a non starter in bottles.

I haven't tried mixing them, but my gut says that a couple of drops of Citralicious and a couple of Nectaron per bottle of any lighter ale or possibly lager, would probably work very well.

That's brilliant info, thanks. The next thing I've got to brew is a Bitter so I'll give the Kentish Gold a try.

Liquid hop extract

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