brēowanthorpe

The Homestead of Beer

Hop Water

By thomas #carbonation, #Corn Sugar, #Dry hop, #Hop water, #Hops, #Lime, #Lime Juice, #Pilot, #Sugar, #Water, #Westfort, #Yeast

Codename : Westfort Hop Water Pilot

I have spent some time researching hops, reading up on beer and mead brewing techniques, and generally learning as much as I can about the processes. It was inevitable that the algorithms were going to hand me a video suggestion on how to make hop water. This is my scaled down, experimental, completely untested attempt at making a carbonated hop water. Yes, you read that right. Carbonated. I don’t have the equipment to force CO2 into the beverage, so I am relying on my technique of bottle conditioning.

Recipe inspiration : TheBruSho Ultimate Hop Water

Ingredients 

  • 2 g Chinook hops (See brew notes below)
  • 800 ml of filtered or distilled water (chlorine in home water may produce off flavours)
  • 1/16 ml Nottingham dry ale yeast (See brew notes below)
  • 5 ml Corn (or white) sugar
  • 1.25 ml of lime (or lemon) juice

Vital Stats

Carbonation : 1.8

Steep Day

  • Add the water to whatever vessel you will be steeping in.
  • Add the hops to a clean cloth tea bag, this is called dry hopping.
  • Allow the hops to infuse at room temperature for 4-6 hours, or until you get the aroma you like. Try to avoid the temptation of squeezing the bag, you don’t want to impart any particulate matter from the bag.
  • Sanitise everything required for bottling.
  • Once the desired aroma has been reached, remove the hop bag.
  • Add the sugar directly into the bottle, add approximately half the hop water into the bottle, cap it and shake vigorously. This will ensure the sugar is dissolved completely.
  • Add the remainder of the hop water to the bottle, cap it, and shake vigorously once again.
  • Add the dry yeast directly into the bottle. It is already room temperature, wait 15 minutes for the yeast to re-hydrate.
  • Put the cap back on, and shake vigorously, yet again.
  • Add the lime (or lemon) juice, cap it, then shake vigorously one last time.
  • Add it to the shelf, and wait at least one week for it to carbonate.

Steep Notes

  • I used Chinook hops, as I like that pine taste it imparts, I regularly use it in my beer. Use whatever hops that appeal to you. Use more, use less, this is about your taste, too!
  • The video I watched said to steep the hops for 6 hours, I found at 5 hours, I had the aroma I was looking for. I took a tiny sip, it was a taste I liked, too.
  • The declared measurement of yeast is purely a guess, 2-3 ml of yeast can easily create a beer at 3-4% ABV, so a tiny amount should be enough to react with the sugar to get the carbonation. For all I know, I could have used less.
  • Knowing the hops plus bag would absorb some water, the starting measurement of water to be slightly higher, with the anticipation it would reach the desired 750 ml.
  • Using a carbonation calculator, the 5 ml of sugar was chosen to achieve the approximately 2 CO2-vol I am hoping for.

 

Measure out the hops.

 

Add the hops to a cloth tea bag (or hop sock) and allow to steep.

 

This is what the hop water looked like after approximately one hour of steeping.

 

Just a little bit of yeast is needed.

 

Make sure your lime juice is shaken, and ready to be measured.

 

Put the cap on tightly, place in a cool dark location for about a week.

Brew & Tasting Notes

  • Pleasantly pleased, definitely got the taste I was looking for.
  • The lime addition felt just right.
  • This steeped for 5 hours, I think I will go to 6 hours for the next one.
  • The carbonation was too low, I wasn’t sure how the yeast and sugar would behave in the bottle, so I erred on the side of caution, I will likely double the sugar for the next one.
  • I will consider options to sweeten going forward.

Steep day : 27-Jan-2024