Hop Oils in Beer Brewing with Stan Hieronymus – BeerSmith Podcast #152

by Brad Smith on July 10, 2017 · 5 comments

Stan Hieronymus joins me this week to discuss cutting edge research in the use of certain hop oils in beer brewing. Stan has some interesting results regarding which oils provide key flavors in IPAs and pale ales.

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Topics in This Week’s Episode (43:20)

  • Today my guest is Stan Hieronymus. Stan is the author of several books including For The Love of Hops, Brewing Local, Brew Like a Monk and Brewing with Wheat (Amazon affiliate links). Stan also runs a blog and newsletter at AppellationBeer.com
  • We discuss Stan’s upcoming trip to South Africa as well as some of the interesting hop growing going on now in South Africa.
  • We begin a discussion on hop oils including the three major groups: hydrocarbons, oxygenated hydrocarbons and sulfur compounds that together make up only 1-4% of the hop cone.
  • He starts with hydrocarbons such as myrcene which are both volatile and not very soluble in wort, so these are best used in dry hopping
  • We discuss oxygenated compounds like linalool and geraniol which are more soluble and also aromatic. These also have the interesting characteristic of often being transformed during fermentation, and are therefore well utilized in whirlpool or steeped hopping at the end of the boil.
  • Stan explains some of the biotransformations that take place during fermentation.
  • We talk about sulfur compounds which make up less than 1% of the weight but play an important role in tropical flavors that have become popular in many recent IPAs.
  • Stan also shares some recent research in hop blending where blending oils from several different hops can duplicate certain other hop combinations and even create new unique flavor compounds.
  • He shares his thoughts on upcoming hop research as well as aromatic hop oil extracts which have become popular.
  • Stan shares his closing thoughts, and we briefly discuss his books, website and newsletter on hops.

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Thanks to Stan Hieronymus for appearing on the show and also to you for listening!

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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Paul August 2, 2017 at 9:38 am

Brad, I really have enjoyed your podcasts since I started listening about a year ago. I found this interview with Stan very fascinating and was curious to know if you or Stan has a list of the hop combinations he spoke about during the second half of the interview? If possible, could you share that list of different hop combinations and blending?

Thank you!

Brad Smith August 2, 2017 at 1:53 pm

I don’t have a record of it but you might want to check Stan’s blog (and newsletter) both of which are linked in at his web site in the show notes above.

Paul August 3, 2017 at 9:20 am

Great thank you Brad!

Northern Brewer September 5, 2018 at 5:09 pm

The Hopsteiner report is here : http://www.hopsteiner.com/blog/blending-hops-to-match-target-hop-profile/

Before getting too excited, bear in mind that it was funded by Hopsteiner, so essentially tested just their hops, and only had 10 people on the testing panel so it was easy for differences to be not significant. Anyway, in summary :
Amarillo late kettle – 5:1 Cascade:Lemondrop
Citra dry hop – 70/30 Calypso/Bravo (40/35/35 Eureka/Calypso/Apollo was tested but was rejected)
Simcoe dry hop – 50/40/10 Eureka/Apollo/Cascade (60/40 Eureka/Calypso rejected)

Looking at their spidergrams, 60/40 Eureka/Apollo looks a pretty close shout for Citra, and I wonder if something like 2:1 Eureka/Chinook might not be even closer. Eureka is the only one of theirs that gives that tropical element, so it has to figure quite highly.

Northern Brewer September 5, 2018 at 5:10 pm

The Hopsteiner report is here : www hopsteiner com/blog/blending-hops-to-match-target-hop-profile/

Before getting too excited, bear in mind that it was funded by Hopsteiner, so essentially tested just their hops, and only had 10 people on the testing panel so it was easy for differences to be not significant. Anyway, in summary :
Amarillo late kettle – 5:1 Cascade:Lemondrop
Citra dry hop – 70/30 Calypso/Bravo (40/35/35 Eureka/Calypso/Apollo was tested but was rejected)
Simcoe dry hop – 50/40/10 Eureka/Apollo/Cascade (60/40 Eureka/Calypso rejected)

Looking at their spidergrams, 60/40 Eureka/Apollo looks a pretty close shout for Citra, and I wonder if something like 2:1 Eureka/Chinook might not be even closer. Eureka is the only one of theirs that gives that tropical element, so it has to figure quite highly.

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