Squeezing The Hops

[bob downe]

Hi all,

I've just done my first A.G. of 2011. All went very smoothly and it was good to be back in the 'brewing seat' again. In 2010 I did 7 A.G's and had been using hop pellets for some and leaf for the last couple. This first recipe of 2011 has a lot of leaf hops and they sucked up more of the wort than I had expected leaving me short.

To make the volume up, I squeezed the hops with the back of a spatula in the bottom of the boiler to ring out the hoppy juices.

Is this a good or bad thing to do. I've read about Tannins being released if you do this. Is this true? Do hops even have Tannins?

Anybody any ideas?

Many Thanks.

[scuppeteer]

Hey Bob,

I always give the hops a good squeeze especially if I've used a straining bag. Hops do contain tannins but as I understand (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) they do not have a noticeable detrimental effect especially in ale. As I have only recently invested in a proper hop strainer (used it for the first time on my last brew) for the copper, I squeezed as much of the wort out of the hops with the stirring spoon as I could, though I'm not sure its worth the effort! Anyways I haven't noticed any nasty effect to any of my beers by squeezing the hops.
I think you can get too scientific when brewing, when I see it as much more of an art. So long as you follow the basics you won't go far wrong and I haven't made an undrinkable brew yet!

[adm]

If you allow an extra 15ml of water per gramme of whole flower hops (i.e. 1.5L of water per 100g of hops), you should hit your target pretty much smack on.

[weiht]

I do it in the past as well, but have stopped cuz I'm lazy lol , n it reminds me of kinda sucking off a tea sachets n getting that bitter n astringent taste. Just my opinion, but not serious enough to back or break a brew

[bob downe]

Thanks guys. Hopefully it will turn out o.k. then. Next time i may just run extra wort into the boiler to compensate. Interestingly I'd used 100g hops and was roughly 1.5 litres out so it makes sense.

Cheers.

[Andy]

Some people sparge the hops rather that wringing them out.

[TC2642]

I always squeeze mine out because I use so much, never noticed a detrimental effect.