When can I add hop tea?

[Wulfserc]

Good morning,

I recently moved on from kit brewing and made my first extract Saison last night, I decided to keep it simple so I made it a SMASH recipe. Using the brewfather app, I invented a recipe that most closely resembles a strong Saison but to be inkeeping with the recommended IBU I only used one addition of hops (40g of Brambling cross for a 20ltr batch) and now I'm worried that it might not have been enough, is it possible to make a hop tea and then add it whilst the wort is fermenting or will that threaten contamination? I thought about dry hopping if it turns out insipid but obviously this will only add to the aroma, not the bitterness, the brewfather app currently predicts it's sitting on about 0.40 out of 0.35- 0.62 range.

 

[Buffers brewery]

Hi @Wulfserc I’m no expert on IBU’s but it depends how long you boil the hops for that determines the bitterness (I think). If you but 40 grms of hops in at the beginning of a 60 minute boil you’ll get a bitter beer (around 40 IBU according to the calculator). If you add the hops at the end of the boil or even after the wort has cooled to 80C or less, you will get much less if any bitterness and more aroma and flavour. So the question is when did you add your hops?

 

[crowcrow]

It you make a hop tea with boiling water then I'd say you should be fine, I dry hop with no extra precautions - anyone else think it is a risk?

 

[clib]

A hop tea shouldn't threaten contamination to any great extent. Less than a dry hop in fact, and dry hopping is low risk. I used to add hop teas to the bottling bucket, but I tend to add them to the fermenter now, when I do them, after the fermentation has died down. Usually a day or two before bottling. Allows hop particles to settle out if nothing else.

 

[Leon103]

No issues adding it whenever you fancy. The question is, is there a need? You should be already at the top end of the IBU scale for a Saison and they are not traditionally dry hopped so don't worry so much about aroma from the hops.

 

[Wulfserc]

Thanks for the helpful replies gents, I guess the best course of action is sample it and see.