Dip Hop Pale Ale

RECIPE FOR 5 GALLONS:

• 7 lbs Maris Otter
• 1 lbs Caravienne Malt
• 1 lbs Vienna Malt
• 8.0 oz White Wheat Malt
• 1.00 oz Magnum [12.00 %] – Boil 30.0 min
• 1.0 pkg Northwest Ale (Wyeast Labs #1332
• 2.00 oz Citra Pellets [13.90 %] – Dip Hop
• 2.00 oz Mosaic Pellets [12.70 %] -Dip Hop
• 2.00 oz Simcoe – Dip Hop

Transcript: I’ve added hops at all sorts of stages in the brewing process. I’ve added them into the boil, added them into the whirlpool, I’ve dry-hopped, but never have I ever dip-hopped, until now.

My name is Martin Keen, and my homebrew challenge today is to give dip-hopping a try, using this pale ale. Pale ale is just such a wonderful beer style, one of my favorites. I think it’s a great way to test out hops, because you have that malt backbone from the pale ale, which really supports any hop flavors and aromas that you add to it.

And this pale ale is designed to be sessionable, at around 4.7% ABV.

Now for the mash, nothing changes. This is all business as usual, going to be mashing for about an hour at 152 fahrenheit or 67 celsius.

What is Hop Dipping?

Hop dipping was popularized by the Spring Valley Brewery in Japan. It’s effectively a form of hop steeping that happens in the fermentor, by creating a hop tea. By keeping the hops out of the boil and in extended contact with the beer, hop dipping keeps around flavors and aromas that wouldn’t survive the hotter wort temperatures, and keeping bitterness to a minimum.

And unlike dry-hopping, which typically happens at the tail-end of fermentation, the hops are present right from the moment the yeast comes in contact with the wort.

Process:

In terms of the grist, I’m effectively building an American pale ale with just a little bit of a twist, because instead of using two row as my base malt, I’m using Maris Otter, just for that little bit of biscuity character it will bring.

74% of the recipe is made up of Maris Otter. To that, I’m adding 10% Vienna malt and Caravienne malt, and then 6% is white wheat malt, which should in total give me an original gravity around 1.048.

Now, I’m about one hour out from having cooled wort added to my fermentor, and that is the time for dip-hopping.

In terms of the hops that I’m using, I’m using Simcoe, Mosaic, and Citra. Those are wonderful aroma hops, that I should get citrus, passion fruit, that sort of thing.

Now, my fermentor is clean and sanitized, and I’m going to add the hops directly into this fermentor. And to that, I’m adding some hot water. This is my pour-over kettle. Did I mention I have a coffee brewing channel?

Now, this has been heated to 180 fahrenheit, or around 82 celsius. For a five-gallon batch, you’d want to add about 1.5 liters of water. I’m doing a three-gallon batch, so I’m going to add a liter of water, which happens to conveniently be the amount of water that fits in this kettle.

So I’m just going to submerge the hops with the hot water. My dip tube’s a little close to this hop pea soup now, so I’m just going to adjust that as well. And I can already smell some of those aromas coming out. I don’t want those aromas to escape, so I’m going to be putting my top on this fermentor and leaving this for an hour.

Now, I’ve been sent this beer line cleaning kit, called Bar-King, from 5 Star North products. I don’t normally do unboxings, but this thing is so beautifully packaged.

Now, the kit I’ve got here is specifically designed for ball lock kegs, although you can get different connections. I have this little ball lock adapter, which is apparently 3D-printed.

All right, so let’s get this thing assembled. It comes with these cleaning packets. This is the cleaning solution. I’ve got, well, some beer mats and a little bit of line here. And I believe it’s just a case of hooking up the line to this end, adding this in here.

Then, on this end, on one end, you’re going to add the hook to a ball lock connector. It’s going to hook onto something like this, and then the other end goes in here.

Now I’m going to fill this up with warm water and one packet of this. Now I’m going to hook this up to one of my beer lines, open the tap, have something under the tap to collect the water, and then pump on this until the blue liquid starts flowing.

Now I’m going to reopen the tap and pump the rest of the blue solution through the line, refill the bottle with some warm water, and flush the line with that. The cleaning solution’s blue, so I should know when it’s rinsed and the water’s running clear. And that’s it, clear beer lines. Pretty convenient.

Now, I am still adding some hops into the boil, the bittering hop. I’m using Magnum, a nice, clean bittering hop, and I’m going to use this to get to around 36 of IBU. Now, I’m only going to boil for 30 minutes today, and I’m just going to add this Magnum in at the start of the boil, which is right now. (singing) I’ve chilled the wort, and now it’s time to transfer it into the fermentor.

I’m going to rack the wort directly onto the dip hops.

The yeast, I’m going to be adding in Northwest Ale. This is Wyeast 1332, fermenting at around 68 fahrenheit or 20 celsius.

And process-wise, I’m just going to treat this as a normal beer at this point. I’m going to ferment, and then cold crash in the fermentor, then move this into a keg to force carbonate, see how it turns out.

Tasting

So have you recovered from that 99-week challenge now?

Yes, I think I have.

It’s been a while.

It’s been a long time, yeah.

A lot of weeks no beer.

Yeah, a lot of weeks no beer, so this better be good.

Yeah, well let’s see. Yes, a dip-hopped pale ale. Okay, we normally look at the color and stuff. I mean, it looks good. What I care about is the aroma on this one. So, sniff.

Okay, I have no idea what to expect at all, so… That is very citrusy, or very fruity.

Yeah, citrusy, fruity for sure.

Smells very inviting.

Yeah. This was the whole dip-hopped process, was really to see if we could get… to really get some hop aromas, and my goodness, this has really got a very strong citrusy, fruity, kind of hoppy aroma, I think. All right, let’s try it.

Okay.

Beer.

Yeah, beer.

What is this thing?

It tastes really good, but it doesn’t taste as strong as the aroma, but it definitely has the subtlety of the fruity flavor in the hops that I’m smelling.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think that’s consistent with the brewing method, because with hop dipping, we are really expecting to get a lot on the aroma, maybe a little bit on the flavor, which I’m getting, but it doesn’t taste as strong as it smells.

No, not at all. No.

That’s what you’re saying, right? Yeah. I think I’m a fan of hop dipping, and I think this is a technique worth trying again with some different hops, because it’s done a fabulous job.

Well, I appreciate you having me. I’ve never been in a YouTube video before, so this was a really cool experience.

It does almost seem that way. It’s been a while.

It’s been… Well, on that note, I guess a big cheers and thank you.

Cheers.