Article written in collaboration with Alexandra Berry.
What is it?
Continuous hopping involves adding small amounts of hops throughout the boil. This allows for the development of both the bittering and aromatic characteristics of a hop. Generally applied in the last 40 minutes of the boil, it can be adapted to any type of hops, boil time and quantity, depending on the brewer's desired purpose.
The origins
This technique was promoted by Sam Calagione, brewmaster and founder of the Dogfish Head Brewery. With a very different approach, he considers his beer creations as real gastronomic recipes (we owe him an Apricot IPA, an Ale with maple syrup, aged malt, vanilla and geese, or a Chicory Stout). While watching a cooking show, Sam was inspired by a soup recipe: don't just toss the ingredients in at the last minute before serving, simmer them for a long time so that the flavors are perfected. If this applies to soup, why not try this technique in beer?
So, rather than putting most of the hops in at once at the beginning of the boil for bitterness and a small amount at the end of the boil for aroma, he tests his recipe by adding his hops a little at a time during the 90 minute boil. The result is a more powerful, bitter, and Aromatic IPA: the 90 Minute IPA which he calls an Imperial IPA, the first of its kind.
Inspired by this recipe and its immediate success, he decided to create a lighter version. So he created a new brew, which he hopped during a 60-minute boil, and called it the 60 Minute IPA.
*There is a 120 Minute IPA... I won't draw you a picture...
Sir Hops Alot
To master the pouring of hops, Sam Calagione turns to a strange instrument: a foosball table!
Purchased at a "thrift store," this electric foosball table vibrated so that if it was covered with hops rather than small players and placed at the right angle over the boiling tank, it would regularly drop the hops. This gentle but consistent addition marks the beginning of continuous hopping.
The technique has been perfected with time, and with more adapted technologies! Sam had a machine built to add the hops autonomously and mechanically for a continuous hopping, a machine he nicknamed Sir Hops Alot.
This technique so revolutionized the brewing world that in 2021, twenty years after its invention, the brewery donated the technique and the first Sir Hops Alot to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.
How to improve your technique?
For continuous hopping, it is recommended to use dual purpose hops, bittering and flavoring hops such as Galaxy, El Dorado, Simcoe, Azacca, Mosaic or even the good old Citra!
In order to control and achieve the desired alpha and aroma levels with this technique, be sure to use a "Continuous Hop Calculator". The formula for calculating the amount of hops to add during the boil is :
((liters wort) * (IBU) * (0.001)) ÷ ((% usage) * (% AA of hops)) = Grams of hops
If you don't have a Sir Hops Alot to help you, you will be forced to manually add hops regularly and in small amounts during the boil. Generally, brewers add fractions of hops every 1 to 5 minutes. You can alternate varieties to create a consistent blend of hops with flavors and bitterness that can be expressed in the glass.
For those who wish to experiment for the first time, it is advisable to divide your hops into 20 small piles and add them every 3 minutes during a 60 minute boil.
Other beers brewed with the continuous hopping technique ?
Trillium - Tru-Er Action.
Black Hops - #100 IPA
Sources :
Calagione, S., Brewing Up a Business: Adventures in Entrepreneurship from the Founder of Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, (2005), John Wiley & Sons.
https://www.dogfish.com/blog/
http://betatestbrewing.com/pages/continuous-hop.html
https://byo.com/mr-wizard/calculating-ibus-from-continual-hopping/
https://beerandbrewing.com/learning-lab-more-ways-to-get-hoppy/
