Hop Wine?

[BernardSmith]

Has anyone on this forum ever made a hop wine? CJJ Berry suggests 3 oz of hops /gallon. That sounds to me like a lot of hops. He also suggests to boil the hops for 60 minutes and that sounds to me like a way of extracting most of the alpha acids rather than the flavor. My thinking is 2 oz and a ten minute boil. Thoughts? Thanks

 

[Vinobeau]

A few years ago, I mad a carrot / hop wine. It was ok, but would have been better without the carrots! I only used 1/2 ounce of hops per gallon. I didn't boil the hops, just added boiling water to the must.

 

[BernardSmith]

Thanks Vonobeau, I think that that is what brewers might call adding hops at flameout. What I am going to use honey as the fermentable and aim for a low ABV mead - around 1.5 lb of honey and I think I am going to work with 2 oz but what I may do is boil 1 oz for 10 minutes and add the second ounce at flameout, then remove the hops after about 5 minutes.... Do you recall how long you let the hops themselves stay in the must?

 

[Vinobeau]

The hops as well as the carrots were in for 6 days.

 

[BernardSmith]

That did not create a very vegetative taste? Brewers add hops for - what? 60 minutes (15 minutes and zero minutes) while boiling and then presumably remove them either before the wort cools or just before they transfer the wort from the kettle to the fermenter (so within about 30 minutes after flame out)... Dry hopping might allow hops to sit in the alcohol for up to about 6 days.. But allowing the hops to sit in the must then wine for a week seems to me to be very risky.

 

[AkTom]

I dry hopped a beer once for 22 days. I got called to work a week early. It was in the fermentation chamber, so at 62*. It turned out great. I worried for nothing. I have never used hops in wine.

 

[BernardSmith]

So here's my recipe and my protocol.
1 oz of Citra
1 oz of Centennial
1.5 lbs clover honey
Water to make a must with a gravity of 1.058 (so about 1 US gallon)
1 oz of ginger (grated)
1 lemon zest and juice
1/4 t nutrient
1/4 t tannin
Yeast EC 1118

Method:
Boiled about 3/4 gallon of spring water and when it reached a rolling boil added the hops tied in a muslin cloth.
Boiled hops for 10 minutes.
Removed the bag and poured the hop tea into my fermenter (plastic bucket).
Used unboiled water to help clean out the honey from the containers and used the remaining water to fill the fermenter up to the mark I use as my gallon mark (slightly more than a gallon as I want to fill a gallon carboy to use as my secondary so the primary must always have more must than my target volume.
Added grated ginger
Added zest and juice
Covered bucket and allowed to cool overnight.
Rehydrated yeast 15 minutes, added a little of the must to bring the temperature of the yeast down and acclimatize the yeast
Pitched the yeast.
Covered fermenter with cloth.
Returned about 4 hours later and saw that the yeast was active.
Added nutrients
Added tannin
At this time my plan is to allow this to ferment 1 week and then check gravity. If the gravity is below 1.010 I will add enough sugar to bring gravity to 1.010 and bottle and store in fridge. If gravity is above 1.010 will monitor and when hits the target gravity will bottle. Storage in fridge will short term allow this to be both "sweet" and carbonated but this will need to be consumed within a couple of weeks.

Tasting notes: Last night this was VERY hoppy (not bitter, but hoppy), This afternoon the hop flavors had quietened down and the flavors were far more pleasant. Hoping that the ginger and zest will help balance the hops, as will the residual sweetness from the honey.

 

[BernardSmith]

Bottled this last night and it was very tasty. Not at all bitter but with some pronounced fruity hop flavors. I think next time I will reduce the hops to 1 oz and play with a single hop edition (although the Citra -Centennial blend is lovely). I am thinking Nelson Sauvin as the next one to try.
Did not find the opportunity to catch this wine in mid-flight and was only able to get to it after two weeks since pitching, so the wine is technically quite dry (around 7% ABV) yet there is a good hint of sweetness that nicely counterbalances the hoppy flavors.
Also, was not willing to wait until this cleared on its own and was not prepared to cold crash this so I bottled this while it is still fairly cloudy but I enjoyed the sample I filched. This will make a good fall low alcohol drink even uncarbonated.

 

[Venatorscribe]

I dry hopped a 7% abv pear cider. Used Simco hops. I thought it added an interesting fruit salad flavour and an interestingly sharp smell. I had no problems drinking it, however several folk made disparaging remarks about it. Especially women drinkers who went as far to tell me it tasted like beer. Which it didn't. So I don't intend to try that again.

 

[sour_grapes]

Especially women drinkers who went as far to tell me it tasted like beer. Which it didn't. So I don't intend to try that again.

You don't intend to offer it to women again?

 

[BernardSmith]

Does anyone on this forum have a list of the best hops to use when dry hopping? For the batch of mead I just made I boiled the hops in water for 10 minutes to make a tea and used that tea to add to the honey, but I would think that dry hopping - and so focusing more on the aromatics of the hops would /should be interesting. I see that (above) Venatorscribe used Simco hops but is there any published list that highlights the key flavor /aromatic notes of hops?

 

[Venatorscribe]

Does anyone on this forum have a list of the best hops to use when dry hopping? For the batch of mead I just made I boiled the hops in water for 10 minutes to make a tea and used that tea to add to the honey, but I would think that dry hopping - and so focusing more on the aromatics of the hops would /should be interesting. I see that (above) Venatorscribe used Simco hops but is there any published list that highlights the key flavor /aromatic notes of hops?

The person that put me onto simcoe hops was a dude at my local home brew supply shop. So I’d suggest you visit your local and get them to run you through the range they have. They would be the most knowledgeable. Also - ask a question on the homebrew blog ref attachedhttps://www.homebrewtalk.com/. Let us know what you decide. Cheers

 

[BernardSmith]

Thanks... I was hoping to find some objective information rather than use the information proffered by someone who may/may not have current information about hops that they don't necessarily sell. Using other forums is a good idea (truth is I already posted this question on a different beer brewing forum but no one (so far) has pointed me to published information - But that said, I think some books on basic brewing techniques DO contain some information on the flavor/aroma characteristics of hops. The only problem being that if they were published a few years ago the information provided may not include many hops available today that were not available in the USA five or more years ago - Falconer's Flight, for example ).

 

[pgentile]

Does anyone on this forum have a list of the best hops to use when dry hopping? For the batch of mead I just made I boiled the hops in water for 10 minutes to make a tea and used that tea to add to the honey, but I would think that dry hopping - and so focusing more on the aromatics of the hops would /should be interesting. I see that (above) Venatorscribe used Simco hops but is there any published list that highlights the key flavor /aromatic notes of hops?

Finding this very interesting, I will have to try hop wine.

I have dry hopped beer with the following hops to good success:

Galaxy
Amarillo
Citra
Simcoe
Mosaic
Crystal

This list breaks down bittering, aroma and duel use hops: http://www.hopslist.com/hops/
Click on each hop to get the specific data.

Nelson Sauvin would be good for this. Many many on the list

 

[Venatorscribe]

Finding this very interesting, I will have to try hop wine.

I have dry hopped beer with the following hops to good success:

Galaxy
Amarillo
Citra
Simcoe
Mosaic
Crystal

This list breaks down bittering, aroma and duel use hops: http://www.hopslist.com/hops/
Click on each hop to get the specific data.

Nelson Sauvin would be good for this. Many many on the list

That is an interesting link. Running my eye down the 'aroma' column, reminded me that I dry hopped using Saaz hops into a french Saison beer last year. I found it added a unique and not unpleasant aroma. This might be the go for a hopped mead.

 

[BernardSmith]

@pgentile - Thank you. That is exactly the kind of list I was searching for.