Inconceivable wrote:Anyone using 'hop tea' to test hop flavor and aroma combos? How'd it go?
As PP said, definitely worthy of a new thread.
I have considered it, the concept is brilliant, in practice is where it falls down.
Most of my brews are using known hops, I already know how they end up now, so pointless to do it.
For unknown hops, well... If I was given hops and then wanted to brew, for sure, it would be madness not to figure out the hop so that you can then work out a direction for a brew for it - so 'hop tea' would be the first thing to do.
But usually, it's in reverse, I have a target beer that I want to clone, I'll find a few recipes for it, eliminate the wilder ones and come up with a middle of the road recipe from the remaining recipes and buy the hops accordingly. When it comes to tasting, I compare my brew with a bottle of the original for comparison and revise my recipe from there.
But as a palate education exercise, it is a great concept and both brew clubs and local home brew shops should do 'hop tea' days. For me as an individual, I'm not going to the brewshop and buying minimums of 40grams times several types of hops and only using 1 gram in tea to compare them.
But I'd happily pay some money for an event like this and have a range of hops in teas side by side. As an example, there are a few hops with citrus notes, how they combine with grapefruit (which I hate, but am okay with as a note in beer) or passionfruit and various other notes would be interesting - and guide my hop selection instead of sticking with the ole faithfuls.