First Wort Hopping

[pietro]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but for some reason, the search function is ignoring my search terms because they are too common (?). Anywayyy...

Common homebrew wisdom always told me that "when first wort hopping, simply add the hops to the boil kettle as you are running out of the MLT. This will result in extraction of 'smoother' hop compounds than a 20 minute addition. Don't worry about leaving the hops in the boil, as they have already leeched their compounds into the wort, and their acids will not be isomerized. Or something."

Does anyone in my favorite group of purists use a muslin bag or other sort of hop sieve to remove the 'spent' hops before boiling the wort when FWH'ing? Or is this a rare case of German practices and American homebrewer practices agreeing?

[Techbrau]

Leave them in.

[Bryan R]

FWH is still a greatly unknown science. I go into some explanation in my videos. That being said, I never bag any hops.

[pietro]

[Weizenberg]

Yes, leave them in. Imagine how much work it would be to remove them in a 50,000l batch. Keep it simple.

[Das alte]

FWH is a brewmaster's trick which is employed to reduce hot break, allowing for a larger volume of wort to be pumped into the boiler without having to worry about boil over. A small amount of crushed black malt will do something similar. The amount of hops needed is negligible. FWH is a term carried beyond what it was originally intended for. When I notice higher than usual hot break forming during the final decoction, I'll add a handful of hops into the boiler when the bottom of the boiler is covered with wort and fire the boiler. I skim off the hops and break as it forms in the boiler. When employing FWH, taste the gunk that comes to the top and then determine whether the break and hops should remain in the wort or be removed. It is kind of like making stew or soup, a chef skims off the scum that comes to the top. A well designed boiler incorporates an hot break skimmer near the top of the boiler. For that reason, it is not an issue with removing the hops and break.

[Gamb]

Hi all,

I have a question about IBU calculation with FWH method. When i use a single "noble" hop, i use the formula given in helles book or in your great document about LODO. I set a ratio of 30% and a ammount of IBU, easy to use

If i want to use a bitter hop like magnum or perle in combo with low AA hop for arom, then how i can calcul weight of each both hop ? Actually, i set a ratio (30% for exemple) and an ammount of IBU (30 for ex), compute the weight of low AA hop i need. And i convert to bitter hop with a ratio like low AA/high AA. If i want use a more complex hopping program, i cant calcul global IBU and part of FWH with weight of each hop additions.

30 IBU, 30% with an hersbrucker @ 2% AA, 50L batch -> (30 x 50) / (1000 x 0.02 x 0.3) = 250g of hersbrucker. I want remplace 70% of hersbrucker (175g) with a magnum @ 10% AA -> (175 x 0.02) / 0.1 = 35g ??? i dont know if it correct or totally fail ^^

In my mind, i imagine FWH hops boil with bitter hop, so in my recipe software (software doesn't support FWH), i configure my FWH hops with a full time boil (like 80 minutes). In some document, i read FWH equivalent to 20 minutes boil. And in LODO doc, it tell if you raise ratio of FWH, you lowering bitterness -> i conclude, FWH give less bitter than a full time boil ?

TL NR -> My question is : IBU of a FWH is equivalent of how many minutes of boil hopping ?

I hope my english is human readable
Thank you, Gamb.