Article

Dip Hopping Techniques

You’d be forgiven if upon hearing the phrase “dip hopping” your first thought was “wait, like Skoal or Copenhagen?” After all, that was Drew’s first reaction. 

But no, dip hopping (also called hop dipping) is yet another technique in the non-stop attempt by brewers to efficiently jam more hop oil into their brews (you know, the stuff that tickles the nose and tongue without being bitter). The technique was first described a decade ago by Japanese brewers and researchers at Kirin. 

Let’s stop for a second and talk the why and wherefore of all these hop techniques. We can add hops to the kettle, we can add hops at different points in the fermentation or the package. All of our choices are driven by our desire to generate bitterness and to extract aromas and flavorful oils. At the homebrew level, we have a free hand with our hops. What’s adding another 5% of hops to capture more flavors? A few dollars more on a batch is just a few dollars more spent on our hobby.

But for the pros, using five percent more means their beer is that much more expensive and less profitable. Costs scale rapidly when you’re brewing 40–100 times more beer in a go than in a hobbyist’s lifetime. For Kirin, any additional efficiency in aroma hop usage is big money.

We know that adding hops to hot wort off the boil dissolves aromatic oils into solution, but that same heat will cause those volatile hop compounds to fly off into the atmosphere. You know that wonderful hop aroma in your brew space (or awful depending on potential partner’s opinions)? Yeah, that’s wasted oils because they’re not sticking around to hit your nose when you pour a glass of finished beer.

Dip hopping takes advantage of the dissolving properties of heat, while capturing the aroma volatiles in an enclosed environment with less agitation, leading to less “harsh” sulfurous compounds in the final beer. (Want to avoid oniony aromas – apparently dip hopping is the way! Don’t like the “green hop” character of myrcene? Dip hop!)

What about IBUs? Aside from our well documented assertion that “The IBU is a Lie,” dip hops are a bit wibbly to calculate. Dip hops are a “hot” addition at whirlpool-adjacent temperatures — but without the agitation of a whirlpool, and that’s an important factor in any chemical reaction. Having said that and knowing that at the end of the day what we care about is the aroma and flavor oils and not the bitterness so much, we just calculate them as a “coolpool” addition for the length of the stand and get on with it. Is it exact? No! Will your taste buds know the difference? Again, no!

At its most basic, dip hopping involves putting hops in hot wort, where the aromas stay in solution. But let’s take a closer look at how this is done on a homebrew scale.

The Practical

Let’s start with equipment. You’ll need a heat-safe closed vessel. This could be a sturdy plastic bucket, a stainless steel keg, or conical. Don’t use glass.

The proper dip hopping process involves then adding your dip hops to the vessel — roughly 0.5 oz. per gallon (4–5 g/L). Purge the vessel with CO2. Early in the boil, chill and transfer 10% of your wort (e.g., 2 quarts or liters for a 5-gallon/19-L batch) to the vessel at a temperature between 160–180 °F (71–82 °C), no higher, and seal the vessel. (Note: While 10% is the recommended rate from research, plenty of brewers use smaller quantities (e.g., 1 quart/L), but keep in mind when you do that, you’ll drop pretty quickly from the hotter temperatures you want for the process.)

While the dip hops steep in the wort, continue to boil, whirlpool, and chill the remaining 90% of your wort. Ideally, the dip hops are allowed to steep in the fermenter for an hour. After that, transfer the chilled wort into your fermenter to mix and cool down the hopped wort. Since the dip hop wort will still be warmer than fermentation temperature, the wort you transfer on top of it should be cooler than normal. Once transferred, pitch yeast and continue as normal.

For the average homebrewer, the proper process might be tough to pull off. How to chill wort while brewing? What if I ferment in glass? (Insert Bernie Sanders meme “We are once again asking you to stop fermenting in glass!”)

As long as you follow the basic process, there are a few different ways to pull this same general idea off. 

“I can’t easily siphon off and cool 10% of the wort during the boil.” Instead of using wort to steep your hops – you can use freshly boiled water cooled to 160–180 °F (71–82 °C) in your fermenter. Bring 2 quarts (2 L) of water to a boil and allow it to cool for ~10 minutes. Check the temperature with a thermometer and transfer to your fermenter over the hops. Allow to steep for the length of the boil.

If you intend to use water for dip hopping, remember to compensate for the diluting power of water. A half-gallon (2 L) of water added to 5 gallons (19 L) of 1.065 wort will yield 5.5 gallons of wort at roughly 1.060. 

Instead of water, you could also generate a small separate wort with extract and allow it to chill while bringing your main body of wort to a boil.

All of that said, most systems will allow you to at the very least ladle out some wort that can be cooled reasonably quickly in an ice bath in the sink.

“I Don’t Have a Suitable Fermenter.” If you really must use glass (*sigh*) or you have plastic fermenters that aren’t heat-safe (like many of the thinner-walled clear fermenters), you can steep in a separate vessel and combine with the rest of the wort when it’s transferred to your fermenter. For instance, steep the hops in a separate pot with a tight-fitting lid. Transfer your cooled, post-boil wort to the fermenter and then gently add the hop slurry on top of the wort (siphon is the most ideal). You could put the steeping liquor and hops in a keg, steep in the keg and then transfer the resulting slush via CO2 (remove the poppet on the keg post to avoid clogging the post during transfer). Note that, in theory, you’ll lose some of the benefits of dip hopping due to the transfer agitating the hop tea, but it might still be worth a shot.

Hop Varieties

While we briefly mentioned that myrcene is a compound impacted by dip hopping (its perceivable character is reduced, which may or may not be desirable), the two big compounds focused on are the terpenes linalool and geraniol. These two components have long been targeted by brewers and hop aficionados as desirable. Both are key providers of fruity and citrus aromas and mixes of flowers and berries. 

Using hops rich in linalool and geraniol with dip hopping gives an increased perception of the fruit characters as loved in modern West Coast and hazy IPAs. So look to use hops like Cascade, Amarillo®, Centennial, Motueka®, and the number one craft aroma hop – Citra®. 

Another piece to consider while choosing hops is biotransformation. Using hops in dip hopping, in conjunction with a yeast that can perform biotransformation, will unlock a different set of flavors to your mouth. (Hence the extra perception of tropical fruit notes from these hops.) 

Hop Forms

The other consideration when dip hopping is what form of hops to use and how that will impact your process. While there are a few breweries that use whole cone hops for dipping, by and large pellets are the king. 

When looking at concentrated hop products like Cryo® and Lupomax®, be careful to consider the increased IBUs you’ll generate even at 170 °F (77 °C). In the October 2023 issue, we wrote about creating the Denny Kong IPA with North Park Beer Company, which used a “flowable” product from Yakima Chief Hops – Trial 702, now called DynaBoostTM. It and similar products like Incognito® work like a charm with dip hopping and have the added benefit of even less hop matter and better availability of compounds for dissolving.  

The good news is that no matter your hop form or variety, the process doesn’t change. Now the only thing to do is get out there and sing “Da’ Dip” while dipping your hops. It’s certainly a smoother flavor experience than putting just a pinch between your cheek and your gums and sipping a beer. 

You Dip, I Dip, We Dip West Coast Pilsner

(5 gallons/19 L, all-grain)
OG = 1.055  FG = 1.009 
IBU = 55  SRM = 3.5  ABV = 6%

This West Coast Pilsner is meant to showcase the twin powers of the all-around craft hop – Citra – and the power of dip hopping. This is a crisp, quick pilsner with a zippy hop presence that leans into the more tropical citrus and pineapple notes of Citra®. Don’t have the ability to lager? Choose your favorite neutral ale yeast and ferment as cool as you can. It won’t be as “lager polished” but it will still be tasty!

Ingredients
10.7 lbs. (4.8 kg) Rahr North Star Pilsner (or other characterful Pilsner malt)
8 oz. (230 g) Carapils® malt
4 oz. (113 g) Citra® hops (dip hop) 
2 oz. (56 g) Citra® hops (whirlpool)
SafLager W-34/70 or White Labs WLP830 (German Lager) yeast
¾ cup corn sugar (if priming)

Step by step
Use a single-infusion mash with water that has balanced chloride/sulfate levels. Mash at 152 °F (67 °C) for 60 minutes. Conduct a 170 °F (77 °C) mash out step. Vorlauf until your wort is clear, then run off into the kettle. Sparge the grains with 168 °F (76 °C) water to obtain 6 gallons (23 L) of wort.

Total boil time is 60 minutes. After boiling 10 minutes, remove 2 quarts (2 L) of wort and cool to between 160–180 °F (71–82 °C). Add the dip hops to your fermenter and then add this cooled portion of wort on top. Close the fermenter and let it steep.

When the boil is complete, turn off heat, add the whirlpool hop addition to the kettle and give it a vigorous stir to create a whirlpool in the kettle. Cover and let sit for 20 minutes. Then cool this wort to about 50 °F (10 °C) and transfer to your fermenter on top of the wort and hops already in it. 

Pitch yeast and ferment at 55 °F (13 °C) for one week. Then raise to 65 °F (18 °C) for 3 days. Crash to 40 °F (4 °C) for another seven days. You can dose the beer with gelatin/biofine during this period for extra clarity, if desired. Package as per usual. 

Extract with grains version:
Replace the Pilsner malt with 5.85 lbs. (2.65 kg) dry Pilsner malt extract. Add carapils malt to a mesh bag and place in your brew kettle with 6 gallons (13 L) of water as it warms to 170 °F (77 °C). Remove grains and bring to a boil. Turn off heat and stir in malt extract. When totally dissolved, return to a boil and follow the remainder of the all-grain recipe.

Issue: November-December 2024
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