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Hi fellow brewnuts...

Supposing you had kegged a brew and it was not bitter or flavoursome or aromatic enough for your taste, or too much on the malty side, would it be OK to just boil or steep some hops and make a hop tea to add bittereness or flavour ?

I understand aroma might be a bit more difficult, unless you teabagged some whole flowers into the keg.

I dont need to do this, was just wondering if theres a glaring reason why you couldnt / shouldnt, aside from the normal infection reasons.

Cheers,
Chris

Hi Chris,

I went to a brewing demo at Grain and Grape here in Melbourne on Saturday and that very question was asked, and the answer was yes.

Although, the hop utilisation would be affected (if you're going for bitterness) because of the absence of malt. I don't think there's be a problem with aroma if you steep then pitch straight away. You'll get some aroma and flavour.

I hope this makes sense ... I'm a bit delirious after a day of brewing

Oliver

You're sorta right and sorta wrong, Oliver. Not going to question info given by Dan or whatever-SpilsMostOfIt's-real-name-is - they both know their stuff very well but IBUs are extracted very well in plain water - even better than in wort, infact. But there is more to beer than IBUs and this is where someone more technical than myself will have to come in. The gist of the thing is that you can easily add IBUs by boiling some hops in water but there may be elements missing/added/compounded by not doing it in wort and it may not work as expected.

Aroma and, to lesser extent, flavour can both be added quite easily by making a hop tea.

A possibly better solution to this hypothetical might be to blend the flawed beer with another beer that was too bitter/hoppy.

Hi Bum,

Thanks for clarifying.

I didn't know about SpillsMostOfIt. His name's Geoff.

Cheers,

Oliver