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H warming up...
 
While I’ve been looking into ways to increase hop aroma and flavour I’ve learned a few things that are at the very least intriguing. One of these is that lots of plants have the oils we prize in hops and some have those oils at much higher levels. I wonder if anyone has added Lemongrass to their brew, or rose petals, or geranium leaves. All these are edible and loaded with the oils we prize.

Look for example at lemongrass
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I think I might buy some 😉
 
Here are a couple of slides I picked up while looking through published information. The first relates to free thiols - these are the ones immediately available to us and most suited to dry hopping.

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This next slide shows the bound thiols that are best suited (in this piece of research) to hot-side additions. Each of the hops is shown 3 times because the oil content is different when the hops are harvested (E)arly, at the (T)ypical point, and (L)ate. For pelletised hops they blend these to get a product that is more consistent.
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Here are a couple of slides on bio-transformation looking at the two main bio-transformation reactions. The first is what I’ve been talking about - cleaving thiols from the precursors in your wort (obtained from hot-side additions).

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This is the other where a similar cleaving process occurs but with a different precursor (glycosides) and a different enzyme (beta-glucosidase) to release Linalool.
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So now I have three brews to do over the next few days:
  1. A (hopefully) more aromatic version of Summer Breeze using the learning above and making those relatively minor changes I described - but basically the same recipe.
  2. A beer that uses more of the learning so will use cascade hot-side, citra cold-side, and a blend of BRY-97 & Verdant yeasts in fermentation.
  3. An experimental beer taking the second beer and adding lemongrass, rose, and geranium. I may quickly learn why people are not doing this but it’s got to be worth a punt:rolleyes:
 
I’ve noted a few process changes I want to try that I hope will increase hop aroma and flavour…

Hot-side Aeration
When mashing I will turn down the flow rate on my recirculation pump. This takes hot wort from the bottom of my boil kettle and sprays it on the top of the malt. This has never given me any problems - except maybe it has without my knowing. The relatively fine spray has to be one of the best ways to aerate the wort I can think of other than pumping oxygen through an aeration stone! I turned down the flow to a dribble on my last brew and also saw an increase in efficiency - I have no idea if this was a fluke but I’ll be doing it again and will look to confirm any efficiency improvement. If it does, I have another area to research! For now my aim is to reduce hot-side aeration.
When I had a one day “brewing course” I remember the sparge on the mash tun being similar to the rotating arms in water treatment plants, rotating quite slowly, with the nozzles close to the surface of the mash and the recirculated wort trickling like rain out onto the surface. I guess so to minimise aeration? When I created my mash/sparging creation I fed the recirculated wort into a plastic food container that had holes (2 mm) drilled along 2 sides. The wort then rained back to the mash rather than squirting out of the holes.
 
When I had a one day “brewing course” I remember the sparge on the mash tun being similar to the rotating arms in water treatment plants, rotating quite slowly, with the nozzles close to the surface of the mash and the recirculated wort trickling like rain out onto the surface. I guess so to minimise aeration? When I created my mash/sparging creation I fed the recirculated wort into a plastic food container that had holes (2 mm) drilled along 2 sides. The wort then rained back to the mash rather than squirting out of the holes.
I think that would be better than a spray according to the science. I get a similar outcome from turning down the flow rate but as I’ve only find this once so far it’s a bit early to make any judgements. It’s also the wrong beer really because this was my bitter rather than something very hoppy. Summer Breeze might be a better beer to show up any difference.
 
H, you have unearthed some very interesting info here. I can't claim to understand the technical aspects of the chemistry but I do appreciate the evidence and applied science.

That's intriguing about the differential effect of certain hop+yeast+hot-or-cold-side combos, such as cascade on hotside eith Citra on coldside for best aroma and flavour result.

Plus, the old anecdote that Nottingham suppresses hop flavours is visible right there in the Lallemand chart as low β-glucosidase. So maybe a combo of Nottingham and Windsor could be beneficial for those using dry yeast in British beer?

This is the kind of stuff that isn't mentioned often. It's obviously more advanced so less accessible for basic brewers like myself, yet some simple lookup charts or lists based on hop+yeast combos could go a long way toward more effective recipe design.

I know it's not all about the optimum hop aroma/flavour. Some weird combos may give great aroma but are unlikely to work in reality, such as Hall. Blanc and Sorachi Ace dry hop with Kölsch and Munich Classic mixed fermentation. Yet, you never know ...

I'm interested to learn how the 3-way test goes. Keep us updated.
 
I’ve been in the garden tasting our geraniums - later my wife will be putting down slug pellets thinking the slugs have been at them 😂

We have two beds with white, pink, and red geraniums. First bed - leaves from the white geranium have a mild flavour with a bit of lemon, pink tastes more perfumed and stronger, red have the strongest flavour but it’s bitter and astringent. Second bed - red were same, pink were same, white were bitter and astringent like the red. 🤷‍♂️

Looks like I might have to use one plant or taste a piece of each leaf.
 

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