..or perhaps not.
I've had a 60 ml glass of liquid aroma extract that is intended to be used by commercial breweries for a while. Now this is a lot of hop extract. Well, the label does not actually say hops, whatever. The glass has been left alone in the fridge as I have had no idea what to do with it. I haven't been particularly tempted to actually try it out in one of my 25 liter batches. I do quite a bit of experimentation, but this wouldn't count as one that would be worth it.
Today I found a 500 ml can of lager lying around and found that I should give the extract a try.
Well, how much extract to use? I had no idea. I suspect that these glasses are meant to be used in pretty big batches. In retrospect I wouldn't be surprised that we're taking about something like 25.000 liters of, ahem, definitely not the best beer in the world, Danish lager. After all, there isn't that much hop aroma in a bland commercial lager.
The smallest measuring spoon I have is 1 ml and I decided to just go ahead and add that to half of the contents of the can. I did that so that I could dilute the mixture with the remaining beer, if neccessary.
The extract itself isn't particularly viscous like syrup, but is instead more like cough medicine. It smells really strong. There is an intense floral and grassy aroma that melds into an almost unbearable pungent syrup.
I stirred the extract in the 1 ml spoon into the beer. It didn't quite mix with the beer, but instead formed drops of heavier yellow clumps. If you look closely that the image above you can see these yellow drops forming.
The one sip I had from the glass almost made me puke. The experience was just too intense. It was just like drinking gasoline. I decided not to waste the remaining beer.
Well, that's enough experimentation on my part. If anybody would like to try it out in a 25 liter batch please let me know. There's still 59 ml left.
6 comments:
How did you get your hands on that jar?
mads,
I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you. ;)
(I started on a little rant about extracts here, but soon found that it deserved its own posting.)
Lovely. We appreciate that you this kind of research, so we don't ahve to do it ourselves!
It would have been better before NOV 06.
Interesting, I've never had the chance to play with hop extracts. I didn't even know they had aroma extracts!
I'll be sure to try to find some to play with.
I realize this blog was posted years ago, but I figured I'd chime in since I stumbles across it. Extracts like this are meant to be used in small incriments, but what you did was insane. I've used them before to add about 50 IBU's to my 5 gallon batches of homebrew. I added only 5ml to the entire boil. I could see how adding one mL to a 6oz. glass might make you want to vomit. I didn't do the math, but you probably put the equivelant of about 5000 IBU's into that beer.
Try it again if you come across another jar that's not out of date. I think you'll be suprised.
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