![]() ![]() Havig says the current methodology at Gigantic is to use about a half a barrel of hot liquor for every 11 pounds of hops. While the Spring Valley brewers wouldn’t fully reveal their process to Havig and Love at the time, over drinks at Spring Valley, Havig was able to ask a series of questions that gave him the framework for the dip hopping process that has now been passed along to other breweries that have experimented with it in their own ways. ![]() When it comes to dip hopping, just think of it as a different type of steeping or an infusion of hops and wort prior to yeast fermentation or prior to yeast being in the beer. “We found that during the hot aeration of wort, which has long been considered as the cause of the onion-like off-flavor, the amount of EMB in wort increases with the oxidation of iso-alpha-acids.” ![]() In a previous study, we purified the precursor of 2M3MB from hops and identified it as 2,3-epoxy-3-methyl-butanal (EMB),” the brewers of Asahi wrote. “2-Mercapto-3-methyl-1-butanol (2M3MB) imparts an onion-like off-flavor to beer. In 2018, brewers from Kirin presented their findings at an American Society of Brewing Chemists conference that further dove into the science: Also, the production of 2M3MB an onion type of flavor (derived from iso-alpha acid) is suppressed due to a lower H 2S content in the beer.” Haas company ran a blurb in its February 2019 newsletter summing up dip hopping this way: “Dip hopping means the addition of hop after wort cooling before (the) start of fermentation.” They note that with this hopping technology Spring Valley “found the following results: Hop enzymes do not contribute to main fermentation, myrcene levels in finished beers are very low, which was found favorable in this case. If the second half of the last decade was dominated by brewers embracing double dry hopping (DDH), there remains the possibility that the future of extracting desired hop flavor in a relatively straightforward way, could be dip hopping.Īfter being introduced to dip hopping, the brewers of Gigantic slowly started sharing their newfound information with other brewers. He asked how the flavors were possible through Apollo, and the brewer responded: Dip hopping. “I said there was no way the hop was Apollo,” recalled Havig. The answer surprised, delighted, and confused him. Havig recalls a conversation with a brewer at Spring Valley and asked about the hops used. While tasting through some beers, they both were stopped dead in their tracks by “496,” a pale ale that revealed a wonderful hop character. Van Havig and Ben Love of Gigantic Brewing in Portland, Oregon were visiting key accounts in Tokyo when they stopped by Spring Valley, the craft brewery owned and operated by Kirin. On what they expected to be a short and rather perfunctory visit to Spring Valley Brewery in Japan seven years ago has turned into a growing network of brewers across the U.S. Over time, however, conversations were had, stories were shared, studies were conducted, and a game of hoppy telephone began to spread across the globe as brewers worked to unravel and advance dip hopping. The method was used in a number of the brewery’s beers, including the Grand Kirin beers, but received little attention in the larger beer world, especially as a younger generation of brewers were largely focused on giving a never-ending bear hug to the double dry-hopped method. In 2012 Kirin, the Japanese brewing conglomerate, began talking about “dip hopping,” a technique that its brewers had developed that boosts pleasant hop aromas while suppressing or removing unpleasant off-flavors, like myrcene, and aromas that are derived from fermentation. And brewers are working behind the scenes to find new ways to work with hops that not only slake drinker’s desires, but also make the most of the remarkable little flower that is fueling the industry. Hop growers are ramping up programs to develop new varietals that bring exciting flavors and aromas to the forefront. ![]() A simple listing of certain varieties on a beer label will send buyers into a tizzy. Modern beer consumers have an insatiable desire for hops. ![]()
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