I was trolling around on my lunchbreak today and came across This article[/url] which piqued my curiosity. It’s from the Daily Mail online so take that for what it’s worth but it confused me. They talk about using “hops extract” to reduce foaming and gushers. I understand that hops are used for bittering, flavor, aroma, and as a preserving agent. I followed This link to [url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260877414003380]The article
in Science direct that appears will be published in January. Are they talking about preventing infection in beer? I understand trying to avoid gushers but why would you want to reduce bittering or head on a beer? I try to target specific levels of bitterness and carbonation in beer depending on style. Can anyone smarter than me enlighten me on this?
I had no idea that I was adding hops to reduce foaming! Imagine my surprise.
The article must either be a joke or the reporter is a joke. Or - this is unpleasant but a real possibility - I understand even less about beer and brewing than I thought.
Yep, I understand even less about beer and brewing than I thought.
Well, the author of the Daily Mail article doesn’t seem to know much about brewing but I assumed the information had to come from somewhere. They mentioned the research taking place at Orval. I’ll have to see if I can remember to look for the journal/article when they actually release it.
From what I can read into it (not a chemist so could be completely incorrect), they have identified a compound in hops that is “lipophilic” (combines with or dissolves fats/lipids), and can use this to bond with the molecules that are produced by fungi living in the grains, which reduces foaming and gushing.
It’s also interesting that the hop extract antifoam breaks down under high temperature (mashing/boiling), so you don’t get this preventative measure through normal hop usage. That being said, logically this means that these compounds would be present in a dry-hopped beer, although to what concentrations I dont know.
I wonder if anyone (doubt it) has looked into whether dry-hopped beers are less likely to be gushers?
Thanks for the links Machalel, I have used hop extract in the Plinian Legacy clone but that was for bittering purposes, never realized it could work as an antifoam agent as well. Must love hops! My basic understanding after reading through this (also not being a chemist) is that the hops extract works best in a cold stage of the brewing process (actually increased gushing when used in the mash) and that passing the hops extract through a magnetic field on the way to adding to the beer allows for less extract with a more effective result. I can see how this would be a helpful thing for a big brewing company who has to worry about transporting their beer and the amount of shaking the bottles would be subjected to throughout that process. I keg so this really shouldn’t be an issue but it’s still rather fascinating.
Unless you’re talking about removing iron filings, I very much doubt any process is improved simply by passing it through a magnetic field for a minute.
Pyramid power however, is the real deal. You bozos with the conical fermenters are doing it all wrong…
So after my gut, “this is a terrible joke,” reaction. I went and read the abstract and noticed 2 things:
1: They are referring to “hop extract antifoam” which I gather is NOT the same as a Hop shot. Additional Googling says this is a different product
. The process of producing this antifoam agent removes that alpha- and beta- acids resulting in a product that is meant to compete against silicone-based antifoam products like fermcap. It actually reads like the hops extract antifoam is what’s left-over after making Hop Shots.
2: The reference to magnets ONLY comes in at the bottom of the abstract, and appears anecdotal, that “some companies” employ magnets to help disperse the antifoam, and oddly indicates that the process works best if only some of the antifoam is “treated”
So I can accept that an antifoam agent could be extracted from hops. But I still call bull on the magnets.
JMcK is correct, I’m pretty sure that they are talking about a specific extract from hops, not “hop extract” that you can buy to bitter your beer.
The idea with the magnetic field is that it causes the hop extract antifoam to disperse into smaller droplets and allows it to bind with more of the foam creating molecules. I’m not 100% sure on this either, but i’ll keep an open mind.
[quote=“Machalel”]JMcK is correct, I’m pretty sure that they are talking about a specific extract from hops, not “hop extract” that you can buy to bitter your beer.
The idea with the magnetic field is that it causes the hop extract antifoam to disperse into smaller droplets and allows it to bind with more of the foam creating molecules. I’m not 100% sure on this either, but i’ll keep an open mind.[/quote]
I have access to the full article at work and it’s way over my head – high school chem was a long time ago :oops: But if I skip to the conclusion, I can see you’ve got it right. The smaller particles increase the total surface area available for binding on the hop extract. Interesting stuff.
