Not just politics

We all need a diversion from the political world

When I started my substack I said I would cover more than just politics and news of the day. I have many interest, probably too many. Brewing is one such interest. From beer, wine, coffee and one most have probably never heard of or even have had it - hop water. For those not interested in these diversions please read my NOTES, these are re stacks from others many have my thoughts and information I would normally put in a stack.

Today I am going to cover hop water. Hop water is merely beer hops, yeast and water. Hop water is a thirst quencher without the buzz of alcohol and it is more than just plain water. It has ZERO calories and can have the flavor profile you like. They also may have health benefits, I’ll let you do your research on that. Most certainly they have no downside risk unless pregnant - we all know pregnant women deed to be extra careful with their intake - including jabs and pharmacy products. Onward…..

You will need a kettle, I use a Anvil Brewing Ferment in a kettle. Its an all in one system, from brewing to fermenting for beer. It is however highly versatile as it can be used for wine and hop water with no modifications.

Anvil Brewing Company kettle. and ferment in a kettle kit. These come in 7.5, 10 and 15 gallon. Each ferment in a kettle kit is specific for your kettle. I have the 7.5 and 10 gallon kettles. Why both? Well I started out to brew beer using kits and while great beer can be made with kits it does limit your ability to experiment vs all grain. I moved to all grain brewing. Another stack for another day. My advice, buy the 10 gallon. The 7.5 gallon is $197.00 and the 10 gallon is $219.00. If you want to brew beer you’ll have the kettle to do kits or all grain. Spend the $22.00 Having siad that Anvil does run sales from time to time. During the fall they ran a 25% off on kettles so I bought the 10 gallon. The ferment in a keg kit is around $40.00.
This kettle has the thermometer which you need and the the valve and dip tube to drain into a keg. You will need a short length of hose and a fitting for that. A couple of dollars.

You can use other kettles but you will then need to buy a fermenter. Taking more room and more money.

To carbonize it you will need a old soda keg or a new one, regulator, a 5lb co2 tank a refrigerator and of course a picnic tap and hoses.

2.5 gallon or 5 gallon Cornelius ball lock keg. These can be found used from a variety of brew suppliers or Facebook Market Place or craigslist. Cost new around $120.00 used I’ve seen them for $30.00. Used maybe dented but that does not matter except cosmetically. While both the 2.5 and 5 gallon will fit in a refrigerator, the 2.5 is easier to handle. You will want a dedicated refrigerator as they do take up some room. So make a place in the garage if you haven’t all ready.

CO2 regulator. Get a double gauge regulator. These run the gambit from sub $50.00 to well over $100.00 new. Again a brew supplier will have them. One gauge gives you the tank pressure, the other one lets you tune the carbonization level. Get one that has the various volumes of co2 marked as it just makes life easier. This will have various beers and the volume of co2 to properly carb various varieties of beer.

A 5lb co2 tank will run around $80.00 or more depending on the supplier you use. Buy a less expensive one as when it is empty you will take to your local brew supplier and trade it for another. You can get yours back in some cases but it will take time as in a few days as the tank has to be cooled to accept co2 from the larger tank.

Again the regulator and co2 tank are available on Marketplace or craiglist. at far better prices.

Picnic tap, ball lock. Just buy new, used will need to be cleaned and its just not worth it. $16.00

Gas line, ball lock, you need this to run from the regulator to the keg. $13.00

Well that covers the equipment you need to make hop water, beer, wine and you can even mix up mixed drinks keg them and they are ready to serve. You can either carb them fully or just throw enough co2 to push them out of the keg. You are also going to need a sanitizer and a soap to wash. Washing / cleaning are not sanitizing. You must do both. Star San $21.99 is the sanitizer I use and PBW $12.99 or an unsented oxy clean. Both will last for a long time as it does not require much, a few pennies per batch. You are also going to need ph test strips. $12.00 for 200.

So when we add all this up you are going to spend between $550.00 to $600.00 for a new set up or half that if you buy used. The Anvil kettle I have never seen used so if you find one it will be a rare deal indeed.

YIKES you say that is one hefty bill to make flavored water. I am not going to argue that point. Its is, but as I said I use this same system for beer, wine and someday mixed drinks. If you ever do decide to sell its still going to be worth something, probably 1/2 of new, if you bought used well maybe a few $’s hit or maybe not.

Now for some quick math. We already know we have $550.00 before we do anything.
I use RO water, distilled works also. You can use tap water if you have good tap water. I personally cannot stand municipal water. I can taste the chemicals they use, I live in the country and have a well, but the water is very hard. Those minerals will have an effect of the taste. If you like your water use it. Brewing beer I have learned how to build a water using mineral salts to get a water profile that fits what I am wanting. Water can cover or accent the hops or beer. I just prefer to build it from the ground up. Anyway…

RO water $1.40 a gallon for store bought.

Hops, these are going to run $5-$8 per oz. I use cyro hops as they are about the same price as regular hops but you use them 2-1. 1oz of cyro = 2 oz regular hops.

Yeast, oh we are not making beer so why the yeast? Yeast and hops have a symbiotic relationship and while the yeast will not produce alcohol in hop water it does likes to munch on hop compounds and a biotransformation takes place. This biotransformation yeilds a bright, crisp, citrusy, and refreshing hop water vs a stale, sharp taste. Use dry yeast. I use SafLager 34/70, it a neutral yeast and it readily available. $8.00 per 11.5 grams. This yeast has a large activity range. 48-71 degrees .

You will also need a lime, citric acid or lactic acid to bring the ph down - more on that later. I use lime and lime zest as I like limes and it merely gives a hint of lime. You want your ph at 3.2 to 3.6 to deter bacterial growth.

So we have a water cost of $25.00 per 5 gallons. including various mineral salts and a lime.

How many 12oz glasses in a 5 gallon batch ? 53 12oz servings, so your at around 0.47 per glass. Store hop water? $1.33 to $2.00+per 12oz can. So saving is 0.86 per 12 oz. So at $550 cost it will take 640 12 oz serving to pay for that equipment, If you only make hop water and at the end you just toss everything in the garbage. If you and your significant other drink 1 each per day it will take a year to pay for the equipment. After that - well its paid for. I can guarantee you if you find the right combination of hops you will drink more than 1 per day.

On to the process

Pick your hops, this is a tough one as taste and aroma are highly subjective and personal. It can be intimidating and overwhelming. Citrusy, herbal, earthy, spicy, fruity, cedar, pine….. most have a combination of flavors. Some are subtle some are strong. Bitterness for the most part comes from boiling the hops - you can do that but I do not. Boiling for bitterness is done to overcome the sweetness in malt in beer making.
https://homebrewacademy.com/hops-chart/

Some more popular choices,

• Citra: Strong citrus and tropical tones of grapefruit, melon, lime, gooseberry, passion fruit and lychee

• Lemon Drop: lemony-citrus aroma, this hop is used in brewing as a dry hop or late edition due to its flavor properties

• Mosaic: A complex array of tropical fruit, citrus, berry, herbal, earthy and pine characteristics

• Simcoe : Unique passionfruit, pine, earth and citrus characteristics

• New Zealand: many interesting choices in this classification of hops. Citrus, pine, lemon, lime, mandarin, and more

As I said this is not a all inclusive list and the link is not all inclusive either. Look at the descriptions and profiles. Experiment, try new things. My most recent was oz of Cyro Simcoe and 1/2 oz of Mosaic that was left over from a beer brew that I just decided to dump in. Sometime it works to throw stuff together and some times it does not. This time it worked great, the flavor profile is phenomenal.

Next pick your yeast - you want a neutral yeast - one that does not throw flavors around SafLager 34/70 fits that bill. You just need to keep it around 65 degrees while you let it do its thing on the hops. While I have not used Kveik yeast for hop water it is less critical on temperatures. 70-90 degrees. It does however throw flavors. So pick one that throws a flavor you want. I have used it to brew pseduo lagers, it rips through the wort in 2 - 3 days at 70-75 degrees vs a week or more.

Well now you have everything you need to get started.

1. Put your water in the kettle and bring to a boil, when temp hits 170 degrees pull approximately 16 oz out, put 1/2 your hops in and cover. Bring your kettle to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes, this kills any wayward bacteria. Turn off heat put in the other half of your hops.

2. Stir forming a whirlpool for 10 minutes.

3. Chill the water. You can put your kettle in a sink, and dump ice in and water. Stir the water because it will cool quicker and eliminate hot spots. You can also buy a wort chiller - an immersion chiller ( this is a JaDeD Hydra chiller. It will take water from boiling to 70 degrees in less than 10 minutes and use around 18 gallons of water)

   

   $60-$200 then you just put the chiller in the kettle turn on the cold water and cool the water to 70 degrees or yeast pitching temperature. Read your yeast packet for that information. Ice bath will work just fine for hop water and some home brewers use ice bath also. I use a immersion chiller as it is critical with beer to get the water to pitching temp as quickly as possible.)

4. Move cooled hop water to your fermenter, in my case I do nothing as I use the Anvil system referenced above.

5. Areate the water, simply take a spoon and stir and dip it in and out for a few minutes. Adding oxygen helps the yeast get started. I use a areation stone

   

   and a small fish tak air pump. Add that 16 oz of hop and water you set aside. Pitch your yeast, spray sanitizer on your scissors before cutting the packet and also sanitize the packet prior to cutting.

6. Put you air lock on, the rubber sealing ring on from your ferment in a kettle kit and let it set for 3 or 4 days. Put either star san solution with water or vodka in the air lock so no bacteria can get in while fermenting

7. After 3-4 days your ready to keg. Clean and rinse your keg with PBW, then Star San. Dont fret over the foam Star San leaves behind, it will not affect the water or you. The yeast and hops will settle out. This is where the valve and dip tube in the kettle shine. Hint: line up the dip tube horizonatally in the kettle and line up with handle so you know the position of the dip tube. Sanitize your hose the hook your hose up to the valve, drop other end in keg. Now take off that air lock and the rubber ring. Open handle up and start running the hop water to the keg. You can slightly turn the valve that will turn the dip tube and drain as close to the bottom of the kettle without picking up hops or yeast as you can. If you do get some don’t worry, its fine. At worst you will plug the ball lock in the keg, simply release co2 and take it off clean, star san and reinstall.

8. Put the keg in the refrigerator, hook up your air line. Put pressure to the keg, open PRV ( pressure relief vavle ) and repeat several times. This purges the oxygen as bacteria and co2 do not play well together. co2 will not let bacteria get a foot hold.

9. Pressure to 4 volumes of co2 - remember that gauge I said you wanted - this is where that comes in.

10. Of course clean the kettler right away with PBW. Set it on the shelf.

After a week the keg should be carbed - set back and knock down some cold ones.

All said you can spend as much money as you want on this. We all need diversions and hobbies to relax and have down time to think about other things.
While this may seem like a lot of work, it takes around 1.5 to 2 hours to do all this. Skip a tv show or two, getting of the couch does our physical and mental health a favor. You can use any stainless steel pot that will hold 6 or 7 gallons of water. Ice baths work just fine. Just be aware 5 gallons of water is 30 pounds plus the kettle and 5 gallons of hot water can be dangerous if you spill it. I built my system for ease of use. I’ve lugged these kettles around. Its not fun, Thus I set up a cook top in my basement, set it up high enough that gravity works to move the water. The kegs make moving easy. I put in a laundry sink so I can clean everything right there, everything is next to a drain so spills are just swept into the drain.

If you have questions post them and I will do my best to answer.