Author: Brian Hall

Released by YCH Hops in early 2017 and debuted to homebrewers at the 2017 Homebrew Con in Minneapolis, MN, LupuLN2 Cryo Hops consist of lupulin powder that has been separated from the vegetative matter of whole hop cones. This is said to allow brewers to pack a more pungent punch of hop aroma and flavor in their beer without all of the vegetative cone material, which is said to both eliminate astringency while decreasing volume losses. All the good without the bad.

Brewers began experimenting with Cryo Hops soon after their release, with some going so far as to produce beers hopped solely with this novel product. While even Cryo critics have argued they do pack a punch, there’s been some contention that eliminating the vegetative hop matter leads to a more one dimensional flavor.

I was excited about to try Cryo Hops out for myself and got a hold of some from pretty early on, mostly using it as whirlpool and dry hop additions in my hoppy ales. Never the wiser as to how it was actually affecting my beers, I figured it best to put it up against the more commonly used pellet hop to see how the compare!

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the differences between Pale Ales of a similar recipe made using either pellet hops or LupuLN2 Cryo Hops.

| METHODS |

I designed a hopped up Pale Ale of moderate OG for this xBmt. While a juicy NEIPA was tempting, I wanted to make sure any differences between pellet and Cryo hops weren’t covered up by higher alcohol or yeast character.

Cryo Me a River

Recipe Details Batch Size Boil Time IBU SRM Est. OG Est. FG ABV 5.5 gal 60 min 39.7 IBUs 3.9 SRM 1.055 1.012 5.6 % Actuals 1.055 1.005 6.6 % Fermentables Name Amount % Pale Malt (2 Row) US 10 lbs 90.91 Vienna Malt 1 lbs 9.09 Hops Name Amount Time Use Form Alpha % Citra 12 g 30 min Boil Pellet 14 Citra 12 g 15 min Boil Pellet 14 Citra 24 g 5 min Boil Pellet 14 Citra 97 g 1 min Boil Pellet 14 Citra 114 g 0 min Dry Hop Pellet 14 Notes CRYO HOPS HOP SCHEDULE:

7 g @ 30 min

7 g @ 15 min

14 g @ 5 min

57 g @ 1 min

57 g @ dry hop



Water Profile: Ca 126 | Mg 0 | Na 0 | SO4 118 | Cl 135 Download Download this recipe's BeerXML file

I collected the full volume of RO water for both batches in a single kettle a day ahead of time, adjusting it to my target profile before setting up my heat stick for pre-heating.

My first order of business on brew day was weighing out and milling the grain.

After transferring half of the strike temperature brewing water to a separate kettle, I mashed in on the batch that would receive pellet hops then did the same on the Cryo Hops batch 10 minutes later. Both hit the same target mash temperature.

Both mashes were wrapped in insulation and left alone for a 60 minute rest.

When each mash was complete, I removed the grain bags and let them drip until identical volumes of wort were collected.

While the pellet hop wort was heating up, I weighed out the kettle hop additions for both batches. The amount of Cryo Hops used in the kettle was based on its expected IBU contribution, with both batches being designed to reach the same level of bitterness.

The worts were boiled for 60 minutes with hops added as stated in the recipe.

When removing the hop filter after each boil was complete, I noticed an obvious difference in the amount of residual vegetative material.

I quickly chilled each wort to 68°F/20°C with my immersion chiller, an easy task during the Anchorage winter.

Refractometer readings of the worts revealed they’d achieved the same 1.055 OG.

I racked equal amounts of either wort to glass carboys then pitched each one with a fresh can of Imperial Yeast A07 Flagship.

The beers were placed in my fermentation chamber and left to ferment. In typical West Coast style, I held off on adding the dry hop charge until fermentation had tapered off, which was just over 1 week after brewing. Per the manufacturer’s recommendation, the Cryo Hops dry hop charge was 50% that of the pellet hops. While the pellet hops quickly integrated into the beer as expected, the powdery Cryo Hops hung around on the surface, an issue I’ve read about with this product.

After 2 days on dry hops, the beers were ready to be packaged. A visual comparison of the trub on either batch seemed to support claims of improved yield.

Hydrometer measurements at this point showed both beers reached the same low FG, making these some of the driest beers I’ve made in awhile.

Both beers were then racked under pressure to CO2 purged kegs.

I placed the filled kegs in my kegerator and hit them with a brief period of burst carbonation before reducing the gas to serving pressure. After a few days of conditioning, they were ready to serve to participants. I thought it was interesting how the Cryo Hops beer seemed to clear a little more than the one hopped with pellets.

| RESULTS |

A huge thanks to Girdwood Brewing for allowing me to collect data at their beautiful facility.

A total of 21 people of varying levels of experience participated in this xBmt. Each participant was served 2 samples of the pellet hop beer and 1 sample of the Cryo Hops beer in different colored opaque cups then asked to identify the sample that was unique. While 12 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to identify the unique sample to reach statistical significance, only 5 (p=0.88) made the correct selection, indicating participants were unable to reliably distinguish a Pale Ale hopped solely with pellet hops from one hopped only with Cryo Hops.

My Impressions: Despite my best efforts, and even with the preconceived idea of what to look for, I was unable to tell these beers apart over multiple triangle test attempts. If anything, perhaps I should receive tasting “street cred” for being unable to even achieve guessing the correct one with 1/3 probability. The beer ended up drier than I expected, which believe is due to the new base malt I used, but overall it’s a crushable Summer citrus beer. I agree with one taster’s summaring– “I could drink the shit out of this!”

| DISCUSSION |

Cryo Hops are marketed as a product that allows brewers to impart intense levels of hop flavor and aroma using a fraction of the typical amount of hops, leading to less astringency and vegetal flavors as well as improving beer yield. There was a small difference in trub between the beers in this xBmt, which can be explained by the fact the Cryo Hops batch simply received a smaller amount of hop material than the pellet hops per the recommendation of YCH Hops.

Results showing participants in this xBmt were unable to tell apart beers hopped with either pellets or Cryo Hops suggests the latter can be used at lower rates to achieve similar aroma and flavors. While the trub differences on the homebrew scale may not have had a huge impact on the homebrew scale, it could definitely lead to improvements in yield on larger professional brewing setups.

Then there are the claims of reduced astringency and vegetal flavors when using Cryo Hops. Contrarily, tasters’ inability to distinguish between the beers in this xBmt indicate all the extra vegetative hop matter in the pellet hops beer didn’t have enough of an effect to change the perceivable character of the beer. I used 8 oz/227 g of pellets in the 5 gallon/19 liter batch for this xBmt, which is quite a bit even for an IPA, so I’m not really sure what might explain this finding.

I fully expected these beers to taste different and figured the Cryo Hops batch would end up being preferred due to its cleaner hop profile. I brew and drink a lot of hoppy IPA, particularly of the New England variety, and I’ve definitely perceived what I believe to be astringency in some examples. If this issue is caused by the heavy use of hops, the strigs and bracts of which contain tannins, it makes sense that leaving that stuff out would reduce the risk of astringency.

In addition to exploring this aspect of Cryo Hops more, I look forward to experimenting with higher amounts to see if I can’t milk it for even more potent hop character. That said, at over triple the price of pellet hops, my future use of Cryo Hops will likely be primarily for exBEERimental purposes.

If you have any thoughts about this xBmt, please do not hesitate to share in the comments section below!

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