(Last Updated On: November 5, 2018)

First Wort Hopping (or FWH) is a brewing term that refers to adding some or all of an initial hop addition BEFORE the wort has begun to boil.

This technique reportedly has its roots in German brewing over 100 years ago. Since then, commercial and home brewers have used first wort hops for a variety of different reasons.

In this article, I’ll go over the history of using first wort s, as well as how the understanding and use of the technique has changed over the years.

What Is First Wort Hopping?

These days, first wort hops are a hop addition used either in place of, or in conjunction with, the standard 60 minute bittering addition.

Traditionally, the method used hops more often associated with late additions than with early, bittering additions. The thought was that this would impart a smoother, more complex bitterness, flavor, and aroma to the finished beer.

Whether this is truly the case is up for debate. Regardless, first wort hopping has become increasingly popular in the homebrewing world over the last several years.

That said, the implementation and reasons have evolved a bit from the German origins of the method.

Some brewers use this method regardless of style or recipe. Other brewers only use it when one of the reported benefits of first wort hops is desired for a given batch.

History of First Wort Hops

Interestingly, some of the earliest experiments with first wort hopping involved substituting the LATE addition hops with first wort hops.

Typically, flavor and aroma hops are added later in the boil to prevent volatile oils from evaporating. Less bitterness is also extracted through the isomerization of Alpha Acids with late additions, since the hops are boiled for a shorter amount of time.

The original theory with was that by allowing the flavor and aroma hops to steep in the sweet wort before it reached a boil, those volatile aroma and flavor compounds would be converted into compounds which would be less subject to evaporation during the boil.

The thinking was that this lent a different, smoother, more complex hop profile to the finished beer.

It should be noted that during this period, first wort hopping was likely being used exclusively in styles like the traditional German Pilsener. These beers would have had far less hop flavor and aroma to begin with than modern popular craft and homebrew beer styles like West Coast IPAs.

First Wort Hopping Evolution





Over time, there appears to have been a shift away from replacing the late additions with first wort additions. Instead, it seems more common to replace the typical 60 minute bittering addition.

I’m not sure when or where this trend began to take place. It could have been a misinterpretation of the traditional German method, or it could have been a purposeful experiment. It was likely some combination of both.

Regardless, it does seem to me that most homebrewers who employ this technique are indeed replacing the normal 60 minute boil addition with first wort hops, using the same bittering hop varieties. Flavor, aroma, and dry hop additions remain intact.

How To Use First Wort Hops

Truly, it’s this simple (not my video, but that’s what it looks like!)



Benefits of First Wort Hops

“Smoother” Bitterness

While this was one of the benefits intended by the pioneers of this method, I can’t say I’ve experienced a noticeable difference in the bitterness, or the hop profile in general when using FWH.

Interestingly, the guys over at Brulosophy.com ran an awesome experiment on first wort hopping, and a wide panel, including some certified BJCP judges were unable to achieve statistical significance in a blind triangle test.

In other words, the group was not able accurately perceive a difference between a beer that was first wort hopped, and the same recipe using a 60 minute bittering addition.

Convenience

It is so simple to just toss my entire bittering hop charge into my boil kettle while draining the mash tun. It doesn’t matter if you are an extract brewer, or doing an all-grain or brew-in-a-bag batch. Just toss those hops in as your wort is warming up.

Since the wort is not yet boiling, the pellets dissolve gently into the warming wort. There they proceed to steep until the boil begins.

By this time, the hops are well saturated and not prone to causing an immediate boil-over. It only takes a couple of boil-overs to see the value in avoiding them by whatever means necessary. FWH is probably the simplest way I know.

Safety

Since transitioning to FWH, I have NOT ONCE had a boil over due to a hop addition. That first 60 minute addition tends to be the time when boil overs are most likely to occur.

Adding lots of pellet hops to rapidly boiling wort causes the pellets to instantly dissolve. This creates thousands of new points of nucleation, which can in turn cause an almost immediate boil over of hot, sticky wort.

That’s messy, dangerous, and it wastes your beer!

First wort hopping can eliminate that pesky 60 minute addition.

First Wort Hops vs 60 Minute Addition

As mentioned previously, the first wort hop addition is not NECESSARILY mutually exclusive with a 60 minute boil addition.

However, I think most homebrewers today tend to use one method or the other. I personally don’t see a lot of benefit in using both.

You may need to recalculate the expected IBU extraction when using first wort hops for bittering. Luckily, many popular brewing recipe apps have first wort hopping as an available option.

I personally use BeerSmith Mobile, and it adjusts the expected IBUs accordingly if FWH is selected.

If you aren’t using recipe building software that accounts for FWH, you can expect roughly 10% more hop utilization over the course of the boil. Take whatever your expected IBU contribution of the 60 minute charge is and add 10% to find your new expected IBU contribution.

Or, to keep things roughly equal, use 10% less hops for bittering at FWH than you would at 60 minutes.

RECOMMENDED: Check out my article on hop spiders to make your brew day cleanup easier, and keep excess hop material from gumming up the works, entering your fermenter, etc.

Conclusion

I have to admit, I’ve not personally noticed the supposedly “smoother” bitterness that some folks attribute to first wort hopping. But that’s OK, because I have two major reasons to stick with this method. Those reasons are the convenience and safety benefits.

For me, eliminating the boil over factor was good enough. But it is also incredibly convenient for my typical process.

First wort hopping takes no thought. You just measure out the hops, and toss ’em in the kettle as you fill it up with your wort and start applying the heat. And honestly, I haven’t read any convincing research that would compel me to avoid FWH.

The only real difference is adding my bittering hop charge BEFORE the boil begins. That’s a really easy process change for homebrewers to implement.

I use FWH almost exclusively in my brewing now, regardless of style. I highly recommend you try this method out. You owe it to yourself (and your future batches) to find out if you notice a difference in your finished product

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Additional Reading

American Homebrewers Association

Beer And Brewing

Beer Smith Blog

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