Back-hopping

[Pablosaurus]

Wotcha. I just made a festival suffolk dark kit and, having read here and elsewhere that the supplied batch of fuggles hops over does the bitterness, I opted to add half the supplied amount closer to barreling than instructed by the kit. After 5 weeks in the PB the result is, you guessed it, not hoppy enough. It's OK, but too sweet. Bah!

Is there a way to somehow back-hop at this late stage (I froze the remaining fuggles) without a major risk of contaminating or spoiling the brew? (a small risk is OK). I was wondering about pouring a strained hop tea into the PB, and then either re-pressurising with Co2 or re-priming, but I fear the dreaded oxidisation. Also, there isn't much headspace in the PB to accommodate a Co2 mini-cannister's worth of pressure and I REALLY don't want to rupture the PB.

I spose I could split the brew across two PBs, then do the above, but the other one has Youngs AIPA in it which is too precious (and powerful) to pile through.

Any tips, folks? Thanks in advance.

 

[terrym]

Wotcha. I just made a festival suffolk dark kit and, having read here and elsewhere that the supplied batch of fuggles hops over does the bitterness, I opted to add half the supplied amount closer to barreling than instructed by the kit. After 5 weeks in the PB the result is, you guessed it, not hoppy enough. It's OK, but too sweet. Bah!

Is there a way to somehow back-hop at this late stage (I froze the remaining fuggles) without a major risk of contaminating or spoiling the brew? (a small risk is OK). I was wondering about pouring a strained hop tea into the PB, and then either re-pressurising with Co2 or re-priming, but I fear the dreaded oxidisation. Also, there isn't much headspace in the PB to accommodate a Co2 mini-cannister's worth of pressure and I REALLY don't want to rupture the PB.

I spose I could split the brew across two PBs, then do the above, but the other one has Youngs AIPA in it which is too precious (and powerful) to pile through.

Any tips, folks? Thanks in advance.

1. Your PB will be fitted with some form of pressure relief device, usually a rubber band that fits over a hole somewhere in the cap or injector. Too much pressure and the band expands and then vents the excess gas, until the pressure drops and the band reseats. I suggest you familiarise yourself where this band is, since they deteriorate with age and then ultimately leak. Some folks replace them on a regular basis.
2. When I had PBs, none had CO2 injection, just a basic cap with an pressure relief band. So if the pressure bottomed out part way down the PB I simply removed the cap, added some more priming sugar, replaced the cap and allowed it to recarb. So in your case removing the cap to carefully add a hop tea is extremely unlikely to oxidise you beer. So go for it.

 

[An Ankoù]

There's a couple of things you could try: One is to make a hop tea by boiling the remaining hops in a litre water for an hour and adding the liquid to the PB when cool. On the other hand, you could get buy a bottle of isomerised hop extract and calculate the amount needed to bring your beer up to the required bitterness. Draw off a pint from the tap, mix the extract well into the beerand pour the pint back and reprime or repressurise. As terrym says, there's little chance of excessive oxidation.

 

[Pablosaurus]

Brilliant - thanks chaps. Fingers crossed this sorts it. Will check back in a week or so!

 

[Pablosaurus]

Circling back here to say the hop tea worked a treat. I added some brown sugar to it too so the barrel would reprime. Now enjoying a great, well balanced pint. I'm guessing it will carry on improving from here on too.

Thanks again for the tips.

 

[Pennine]

Circling back here to say the hop tea worked a treat. I added some brown sugar to it too so the barrel would reprime. Now enjoying a great, well balanced pint. I'm guessing it will carry on improving from here on too.

Thanks again for the tips.

View attachment 36031

Thanks for following up and good to hear it worked, I had a batch like this that I was going to do the same but I ended up chickening out.