Brewing with hop extracts: our top tips

If you’ve ever handled fresh whole hops, you’ll know that they are oily and very aromatic. Underneath the leafy petals, there’s a small core that’s stuffed full of oils and all the compounds that make hops so tasty in beer. The amount of oils varies from harvest to harvest and even from plant to plant.

Hop extracts are made by taking raw fresh hops and processing them to separate these oils and aroma compounds from the leafy vegetative matter. Similar processes are used to make super-concentrated hop pellets like LUPOMAX.

When extracts are made, this process goes one step further. The oils can be split up to separate just the alpha acids that give beer its bitterness, or to pull out just the bright flavour compounds. These pure extracts can then be standardised for consistent, predictable results, evening out seasonal and regional variations.

Aside from consistency, another benefit of using extracts is lower wastage. If you’ve ever looked at a pile of spent hops after a brew and wondered how much beer you’ve lost, you’re not alone. Hops are incredibly absorbent and can soak up several times their own weight in beer. So the more hops you add, the more beer you lose.

Hop extracts dissolve fully into your beer, drastically reducing wastage. This is a major benefit for professional breweries, where every pint counts, but homebrewers care about wastage too – we don’t want to see beer going down the drain!

FLEX is a hop extract designed for bittering. If you want to hit a precise IBU every time, this is the extract for you! While different hop harvests have different alpha acid percentages (AA%), FLEX is always consistent – so no more calculating different hop doses based on AA%.

That consistency also translates into flavour stability. The more hops you add to your kettle early on, the more vegetative matter is in your boil, which can add unwelcome flavours. For high IBU styles like West Coast IPA or strong stouts, FLEX delivers the ultra-clean bitterness you need.

FLEX is best used at the start of your boil. It is flowable (you can pour it) at room temperature, but if you’ve stored it cold, you may need to warm it a little to make it easier to dose. Measure out the FLEX and simply pour into the wort as you would hops. You can use a little wort from your kettle to rinse out your measuring vessel so you don’t lose any of the extract.

You don’t need any special cleanup with FLEX, though we do recommend wearing gloves while handling it, as it can cause minor skin irritation. Soap and water will remove any that goes amiss!

INCOGNITO is an extract designed specifically to be used in the whirlpool. Designed with modern IPA brewing in mind, this extract delivers flavour and aroma without any of the losses you get from using pellets.

INCOGNITO is available in the following varieties:

• Centennial
• Chinook
• Citra
• Ekuanot
• HBC472
• Mosaic
• Sabro

As with other extracts, these are standardised to deliver true-to-type flavour every time.

INCOGNITO is a thick, sticky oil at room temperature. It pours better at around 40°C, so we recommend gently heating the packaging in a pan of warm water before using.

Add the INCOGNITO as you would pellets in the whirlpool. It includes alpha acids just like pellet hops, so it will add a little bitterness depending on the temperature you add at. You can substitute INCOGNITO straight into any recipe and get the benefits of lower waste while still getting the flavour and bittering you expect.

INCOGNITO will dissolve straight into hot wort, but you may choose to draw off some wort and mix it in before adding back to your kettle. You can also use a little hot wort to rinse out your measuring jug or the packaging so you don’t lose any.

INCOGNITO can be incredibly sticky, so definitely wear gloves while working with it. Plain soap and water will remove any residue on your hands.

We find in practice it’s best to add some hop pellets along with the INCOGNITO. This leaves your kettle much cleaner at the end, as the pellets help pick up the oily bits and drop them out of suspension. You also get a more layered flavour by using extract and pellets together!

SPECTRUM rounds out the range of hop extracts and is designed for dry hopping. With the dry hop on modern IPA styles getting ever larger, losses are a real issue! And just throwing more and more pellets gives diminishing returns, as delicate aroma compounds get absorbed by the vegetative matter. You could literally find that adding more hops makes for a less aromatic beer!

SPECTRUM can help by reducing the overall amount of hop matter you add, while simultaneously giving a huge amount of potent aroma and flavour compounds. It’s currently available in the following varieties:

• Citra
• Galaxy
• Mosaic

SPECTRUM can be added directly to the fermenter. You might choose to draw off some wort and mix in the extract, then add this back to the fermenter – some brewers find this helps get a more even flavour.

Because SPECTRUM has such a pure and high concentration of hop oils, it can be better used earlier in fermentation than a standard dry hop – the yeast helps pick up fruity flavours and drives off grassy or resinous notes. The recommended time to add SPECTRUM is with 1-2 gravity points remaining, but you can experiment with adding it earlier or later!

It’s best to use SPECTRUM alongside regular hop pellets instead of fully replacing the pellets. This gives you a more layered and complex flavour than the extract alone.

Like the other extracts, SPECTRUM is a thick oil that flows better when warm, so if you’re struggling to get it out of the packet, immerse it in some warm water first.