(Last Updated On: October 4, 2018)

You’ve probably heard about this new form of hop packaging called Cryo Hops that’s got everybody talking. But what are Cryo Hops?

Short Answer: Cryo Hops are a relatively new product on the market that promises to allow brewers to obtain the same amount of bittering, flavor, and aroma with a fraction of the vegetal matter included in traditional pellet or whole cone hop packaging.

Cryogenic (deep-freezing using liquid nitrogen, AKA LN2) processes allow the lupulin found in whole hop cones to be extracted with minimal oxidation, and packaged in powder or pelletized forms.

This packs roughly double the punch per weight of traditional hop packaging.

In this article we’ll dive deep on Cryo Hops, and talk about the pros and cons of Cryo vs pellet or whole cone hops, as well as explain the process used to create them, and how they can benefit you as a homebrewer.

What are Cryo Hops?

Check out this quick video from BeerAdvocate about Cryo Hops, AKA LupuLN2.

Cryo hops allow the same amount of lupulin (the ‘good stuff’ in pellet or whole cone hops) to be added to a batch of beer with roughly half of the physical, vegetal mass added to the batch.

From Northern Brewer:

Cryo Hops® utilizes the most innovative technology in cryogenic processing where whole-leaf hops are separated into concentrated lupulin and bract at extremely low temperatures to preserve the essential oils and resins. The result is an enticing LupuLN2® hop pellet that doubles the hop potency by 40-50% of traditional hop pellets for the same weight. Producing an enhanced hop flavor with juicy, resinous and fruity characteristics that is perfect for IPA beers and styles.

What is Lupulin?

Lupulin is a yellow-ish waxy, resinous material that contains many of the critical compounds that make hops so useful to brewers.

Alpha Acids (which contribute to bitterness) and essential oils which provide distinctive hop flavor and aroma are all contained in the lupulin glands of the hop flower.

If you’ve ever rubbed some fresh, whole cone hops in your hands, that stuff that smells so good on your fingers is lupulin.

If you love IPAs with massive amounts of hop aroma and flavor, you are a lupulin lover!

Enter LupuLN2 (AKA Cryo hops, or Lupulin Powder)

With today’s demand for IPAs and other hoppy styles to have massive amounts of flavor and aroma, this can lead to a very large amount of hop material being added to the batch at various stages.

Unfortunately, all this hop matter can lead to huge losses in finished beer volume, due to the amount of beer lost to absorption by all that vegetal matter.

For commercial breweries, this adds up to a potential shit-ton of lost beer per batch, so the appeal is pretty obvious.

For homebrewers, while we may only capture an extra couple of pints in a 5 or 10 gallon batch, that’s still enough to get me very interested.

Where To Buy Cryo Hops

Cryo Hop Varieties

Cryo Hops were initially introduced to meet the demands of brewers creating IPAs and other hop-forward styles.

So it makes sense that the first hop varieties available in LupuLN2 form are those most often used by brewers looking for big hop flavor and aroma in popular modern IPA recipes.

These popular varieties are now available to homebrewers through local homebrew shops.

For brewers without easy access to a homebrew shop, online homebrew retailers such as NorthernBrewer.com (my current favorite online homebrew shop for ingredients) and Amazon.com (a great choice for equipment and hardware) are great options.

Here are some popular Cryo Hop Varieties with links to check pricing.

Note: At the time of this writing, most of these hops are cheaper at NB than on Amazon. However, if you are an Amazon Prime member (Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial

), the free shipping may make up for it.

That said, NB often has free shipping with orders over $30 or so (this may not be available at all times or in all areas) so if you plan to stock up on homebrew supplies, this may be a better option for you.

Cryo Hops vs Traditional T-90 Hop Pellets

When first introduced, Cryo H

ops were sold as loose powder.

Brewers found this somewhat tricky to use and properly dissolve in the wort. More recently the producers (YCH) have found a way to pelletize the powder.

Cryo Hops in pellet form are very similar to the traditional T-90 pellet hop form that professional and home brewers alike are familiar with. Aside from the roughly double potency of the Cryo Hop pellets, that is…

Here’s some great additional reading on an experiment done to see if tasters would notice the difference between a beer made with traditional vs Cryo Hops.

The best part? Depending on where you buy, Cryo Hops cost less than the equivalent bittering and aroma potential of traditional hop pellets!

How To Use Cryo Hops in Homebrewing

For homebrewers, the benefits of this concentrated hop powder are the same as for professional brewers, just on a smaller scale.

Cryo Hops were designed mostly with late additions in mind, since this is when brewers typically add the most hops to an IPA or other big, juicy recipe.

That said, Cryo Hops can be used at any stage of the brewing process. When using Cryo Hops at any point during the boil, remember to check the Alpha Acid rating on the Cryo Pellets to make sure you don’t throw off your bitterness level.

Cryo Hops are extremely well suited for post-boil additions and dry hopping, or even keg hopping. The ability to cram twice the aroma into half the volume is a major bonus. All the hoppy goodness with less wasted beer.

How are Cryo Hops Made?

The proprietary process for developing the concentrated lupulin powder we call Cryo Hops was developed by YCH (Yakima-Chief-Hopunion).

Liquid Nitrogen is used to quickly lower the temperature of whole cone hops, which allows the natural lupulin powder to be more easily separated from the vegetal matter.

Once separated, the lupulin powder is either compressed into pellets, or sold as loose powder.

By weight, Cryo Hops pack roughly double the hop punch of standard pellet or whole cone hops.

This is a big deal because it allows brewers to achieve the desired level of hoppiness with about half the solid mass.

Conclusion

I hope you learned a lot from this article! It’s clear to me that using this cool new form of hops can be a huge benefit, especially when brewing hoppy styles like IPAs and Pale Ales.

Give Cryo Hops a try on your next batch!

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