Expert: John Snyder - 6/1/2007

Question
QUESTION: Hi John, it's me again. My question this time is: How much does the malt/sugar percentage effect the dissolving of hop elements during boil? They say that a hot saccharin solution is needed to do this.  Given the same amount of water, would HALF the malt result in HALF the hop resins being extracted--everything else being equal?     Thanks, Jim S.

ANSWER: Hi Jim,I'm not quite understanding,what you mean by hot saccharin solution,or hop elements.

Malt/sugar% has no affect on hop resins
Alpha Acid resins occur in the Lupulin Gland,on the hop cone,and are not very soluble in water.The heat of boiling  water(wort)creates a chemical reaction (isomerization)which makes the alpha acid resins soluble in the water (wort)The boil time should be at least 60 minutes.The alpha acid resins only contribute to the bitterness of the beer.As you can see it is boiling water that releases the resins.

As far as brewing:
malt/sugar ratio should be 2/3 malt extract,and 1/3 sugar(including priming)Higher sugar rates will have a bad affect on beer taste.Increasing the malt ext.only to increase the gravity would be ok.

Hop utilization is affected by,Ph of wort,and by the wort gravity.Hop utilization decreases as the wort graviy increases,consequently leading to increase in amount of hops needed

You should give all grain brewing a try.It's a little more time consuming,and attention to temp and time is a must,but the resulting beer flavor is much better.

If,i didn't quite answer your questions to your satisfaction,please remit again any concern you still have

         John


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yeah, thanks John! That answers my question. Could you give me a short discription of dry hopping? Is whole better than pellets? How long to leave it? Will occasional stirring facilitate ester (or whatever) release? How this interacts with gelatin (I put in half my gelatin in the secondary and the other half at bottling).    -Jim

Answer
Dry hopping is used to impart strictly aroma in beer.Usage is normally a 1/4 oz to 1 ounce.Figure 4 to 7 days.No prior preparation is needed.Dry hop in the secondary fermenter.If done in the primary fermenter,the CO2 given off will have a scrubbing effect on the aroma,given off by the hops,and drive off the aroma.Stirring is not needed,and the gelatin will not affect the dry hopping.Hop pellets by weight are 20%to 30% stronger,than loose hops.I prefer hop pellets,in the brew kettle,and loose hops when dry hopping.That's just my preference,as loose hops occupy more surface area.When using loose hops make sure you remove all of them before bottling

         Hope this helps

         John
In what state do you reside?I noticed a 5 hr,time difference,unless that's due to the website's location