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First Wort Hopping question

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Maybe it is just me but I find the directions to doing FWH a little confusing. Got this brew tip the other day that reads in part:

FWH involves adding a portion of the hops to the boiler at the very beginning of the sparging process, allowing these hops to steep as the sparging completes and remaining in the kettle throughout the boil. Add the hops to the boiler as soon as you have finished recirculating the first runnings.

My guess is 30% of your flavour and aroma hops is added to the wort in the brew pot you just collected from draining the mash tun the first time, letting them steep while the grain in the mash tun is then sparged, about a half hour.

Anyone use FWH? How did it work for you?
 
The reason you add flavor and aroma hops near the end of the boil is that flavor and aroma boil out. Bittering hops are added at the beginning because it takes time and heat to extract the bitter from the them. I see no advantage to what you describe. The flavor and aroma absorbed during the sparge will boil out, and whatever you use will add bitter in the same way as hops added at the beginning of the boil.

Personally I toss my bittering hops into the pot before I take it outside and put it on the heat. I find that it is easier to control the initial tendency to boil over if the hops are already in it.  Haven't noticed a difference in flavor.
 
I have used FWH in the same manner that Maine Homebrewer has.  I throw my bittering hops --all of them-- into the boil kettle as I start the sparge.  I will say this, in a side by side comparison of my IPA, one FWH and the other hopped at 60 min, the FWH did have a smoother quality to the bitterness.  I also tried a blind triangle with some friends and they also picked the FWH beer as having a less harsh bitterness. 
 
factory said:
I have used FWH in the same manner that Maine Homebrewer has.  I throw my bittering hops --all of them-- into the boil kettle as I start the sparge.  I will say this, in a side by side comparison of my IPA, one FWH and the other hopped at 60 min, the FWH did have a smoother quality to the bitterness.  I also tried a blind triangle with some friends and they also picked the FWH beer as having a less harsh bitterness.

I find the same smoothness to the bittering and do FWH with the bittering addition on practically every batch.  So much so, that I changed the FWH bittering adjustment in BSmith to be minus 10% instead of the default plus 10%.  I felt I was undershooting "perceived" IBUs due to that smoothness. 

The other part about FWH acting as a flavor addition stems from this theory:  steeping hops at approximately 155F at that pH reportedly "locks" in flavor compounds that do not get created when hops are just tossed into an active boil.  Supposedly, these compounds are less volatile and some are able to survive the boil and persist. 
 
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