Author: Greg Foster

Hop stand. Whirlpool. Steeping. Flameout. Hop bursting. Aroma hops. Finishing hops. Hopsploding. Hopception…

Ok, I may have made those last two up, but you get the point– there are a bunch of terms regarding how hops can be used at the end of the boil. This isn’t all that surprising considering IPA is one of the most popular styles and no one has conclusively proven which method best unlocks the maximum flavor and aroma of hops. As a self-proclaimed hop-head, I’ve done my share of futzing around with these techniques to varying degrees of success. A method I frequently use is the hop stand, or at least that’s what I call it. Since these terms can be kind of confusing and are often used to describe similar though slightly different processes, we figured it best to provide an operational definition for the purposes of this article:

Hop stand refers to a method whereby hops are added at the conclusion of the boil, once the flame has been turned off, and allowed to steep for a given amount of time with the goal of extracting flavor and aroma while limiting the isomerization of alpha acids (bitterness).

Some sources claim a “real” hop stand requires the reduction of wort temperature prior to adding the hops, but our research into the topic revealed most seem to view it more as a flameout addition where the hops are left to steep for 10+ minutes. Whatever you call it, I’ve used both techniques in my brewing. Theoretically, reducing wort temp prior to adding hops ought to lead to more hop character since many hop oils have flashpoints lower than boiling. This reasoning makes sense to me and is the primary reason my standard practice when brewing IPA is to chill the wort to 170°F/77°C before adding the hops for a 20-30 minute soak. It takes a bit more time and effort to pull off, which my anecdotal experience combined with the advise of respected brewers has led me to believe it’s been worth it. But is it really impacting my beer in an appreciable way? Only one way to find out!

| PURPOSE |

To investigate the differences hop stand temperature has on the character of 2 beers of the same exact recipe.

| METHODS |

I was in the mood for a hoppy beer without a ton of malt character that I could drink pint after pint, and given the variable of investigation, I thought Love2Brew’s well reviewed and rather affordable Mositra Session IPA would be a perfect fit. This was my first time using a Love2Brew kit and I was immediately impressed by the packaging, better than any kit I’d ever seen.

The grains smelled fresh and the pre-measured hops were vacuum sealed, something I appreciate greatly.

Brew day began as usual with the milling of the grain.

I heated RO water in my mash tun, added some minerals and acid to achieve my target profile, then finally mashed in the grain. The recipe recommended a 156°F/69°F mash temp, which I hit just about perfectly.

My RIMS system maintained the target mash temp by recirculating for 1 hour, after which I transferred the sweet wort to the kettle and performed a quick batch sparge.

I performed a 1 hour boil and added hops according to the recipe. It was at this point I decided it might be better to use all of the remaining hops, including those intended for the dry hop, in the hop stand in order to reduce the chances of covering up any differences. In preparation, I portioned out my truckload of final hops and split them between two stainless steel mesh hoppers.

In an effort to isolate the variable as much as possible, I concocted a nifty way to perform the hop stand in 2 identical corny kegs that involved partially filling the kegs with boiling water to get them warmed up, then after removing the water, tossing in the hops for the hot hop stand batch before splitting the still boiling wort between the kegs.

Once filled, I set the timer for 25 minutes then experienced my first slight conundrum– should I immediately chill the chilled hop stand wort or chill both at the same time? For this iteration of the xBmt, I decided against immediate chilling in order to equalize any additional isomerization of alpha acids from the boil addition hops. I understood this could potentially create issues of its own, but felt this was the best way to minimize the impact of other variables. About 23 minutes into the hot hop stand, with both kegs sitting at 192°F/89°C, I quickly chilled the second keg to 172°F/78°F and added the mesh hopper to begin the chilled hop stand. It was about this time the timer for the hot hop stand batch went off, so I removed the hops and chilled to my target fermentation temperature, which I repeated for the chilled hop stand batch once the hops had steeped for 25 minutes. Whew!

The only thing left to do was pitch the yeast. Since this was such a low OG beer, I didn’t even bother making a starter and pitched a single pack of WLP002 English Ale yeast into each keg, giving them a good shake before tossing them in my crowded chamber regulated to 66°F/19°C.

Five days into fermentation, I began increasing the temperature by 1°F/0.5°C per day until it reached 72°F/22°C. At 2 weeks post-pitch, with fermentation observably complete, I took a confirmatory hydrometer reading.

With the beers finished, I cold crashed for a couple days before pressure transferring to serving kegs.

For whatever reason, I decided to forego fining with gelatin for these beers, but that didn’t stop them from clearing up nicely after a couple weeks in the keezer.

| RESULTS |

The data for this xBmt was gathered at a recent Strand Brewers Club monthly meeting in Torrance, CA where 25 awesome brewers, judges, and craft beer enthusiasts participated in the evaluation.

Each taster, all who remained blind to the nature of the xBmt, was served 2 samples of the hot hop stand beer and 1 sample of the chilled hop stand beer then asked to identify the one that was different. In order to reach statistical significance with the given sample size, 12 participants (p<0.05) would have had to accurately select the chilled hop stand beer as being unique; however, in this trial, only 6 people (p=0.807) made the proper selection, which is actually lower than what might be expected if tasters were choosing randomly. These findings imply participants were unable to reliably distinguish between a beer that received a hop stand addition at flameout temp (~212°F/100°C) and one where the hops were added at 170°F/77°C.

My Impressions: My experience with these beers followed the results, I simply could not tell a difference. I triangle tested myself with larger glasses, did multiple side by side comparisons, attempted to isolate only the aromatic differences, all to no avail despite knowing everything about the variable being looked at. Some may be expecting me to say something about how surprised I was by this result, but actually I wasn’t. It just so happens I did a very similar experiment awhile back on a much smaller scale. I won’t go into great detail, but suffice to say I was unable to tell much of a difference between multiple small batches of the same beer varying only in hop stand temperature, which surprised me then, to be sure. While I thought maybe a larger batch size might yield different results, my prior experience certainly biased my expectations a bit.

| DISCUSSION |

The low temperature hop stand has been my go-to technique for years now. While they are more time consuming than a simple flameout addition sans steeping, the method’s scientifically sound rationale had me convinced it was key to making fantastically aromatic IPA. The fact the results of this xBmt don’t support this idea leaves me wondering if the time I spend performing low temp hop stands has really made a perceptible difference at all.

Obviously, there’s still a lot to learn about hop stands and other methods for increasing hop aroma in beer. Would an even lower temperature help preserve more of the volatile hop aromas? Our own Malcolm Frazer seems to think so, targeting a hop stand temp of 160°F/71°C for his hoppy beers. Or maybe reducing the amount of steeping time would help? I have no clue, but you better believe there will be more xBmts to come as I continue down my path to IPA perfection!

Do you hop stand warm, cool, or at all? Please feel free to share your experiences and thoughts in the comments section below. Cheers!

Support for this xBmt comes from Love2Brew Homebrew Supply, a national home brewing ingredient/supply distributor carrying everything you need to homebrew beer, wine, and/or cider. Offering a huge selection of items at great prices, check out Love2Brew for your next homebrew purchase!

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