Mash Hopping Techniques
Mitch Harris
5/2011
Basic Principles
• Hops added during Mashing impart:
– strong flavor
– some bitterness
– zero aroma
• “Donut” beers – samples taken prior to
carbonation and dry hopping show no aroma
other than malt, but strong hop flavor.
Bittering Contribution
• How much bittering?
• Web resources indicated that mash hopping
would yield about 25% of the hop’s potential
(25% utilization for a typical mash hopping)
• Brewmate indicates 16% for a 60-minute mash
• Test results by comparison to non-mashhopped beers indicate the 25% is closer to
reality.
Ways to Mash-hop
• Mix with grains – provides complete mixing, no
hassle. Hops are under-utilized, so used mostly
for flavor.
• Add in hop sack – can re-use hops in boil, need to
mash fairly wet and/or batch sparge while
working the hop sack to make sure the wort
works with the hops.
• Can be just during mash, or also during protein
rest
Re-using Hops
• Hops that are used in mash-hopping should be reduced
in α potential to 75% of the original value.
• Example: If 10 HBU are needed and you have ½ oz of
12% α Amarillo, ½ oz of 12% α Centennial and ½ oz of
10% Cascade in your hop-sack, then instead of 17 HBU,
you will get about 13HBU from a long boil. This is also
generally too high a level of bitterness for the beer, so
my recipes usually throw out 1/2 to 2/3 of the hops
used in the mash hop sack and boil for 60 min.
Flavor contribution
• The flavor contribution seems to be around
double a 5-10 minute late addition flavoring for
the same amount of hops.
• No hops are needed as late additions. Dry
hopping can fill in the aroma. Result: recipes that
use about half the amount of hops in very hoppy
beers, particularly when the bittering hops are
either re-used mash hops, or re-used dry-hopping
hops.
Recipe #1 Mango Chutney Brown Ale
• Grains: 4lb Munich II, 4lb Maris Otter, 1lb
crystal 80L, ¼ lb chocolate
• At mash: 1.5 oz centennial, mango chutney
made from 3lb mangos, one serrano
• The hops were reused for 25min in a 30 min
boil
• Fermented with 1272
• Dry hopped in keg with 1/2z centennial
IPA (Maui Big Swell Clone)
• 10 lb Maris Otter, 1lb Vienna caramel 20L
• Mash hopped with ½ ea of cascade, citra,
centennial, amarillo
• Boil 30 min with 25 minute addition of the
hop sack
• Ferment with 1056
• Dry hopped with ½ oz each of cascade,
centennial, amarillo