It’s not mean, it’s recycling

It just seemed so wasteful – 200g of fine Columbus and Amarillo that had only been used for dry-hopping about to be composted. And at the back of my mind I remembered reading about the practice of dry hops being used again for bittering. And it was still reasonably early. There was still time to get a brew on.

Of course, I had no idea how to use them. I mean, how much bittering would you get from the hops? Putting the amounts into Beer Alchemy wasn’t much help.It suggested a really bitter brew but I doubted that. They’ll have lost something to the beer they were dry hopping. The internet was a bit of a letdown, although this clearly isn’t a new idea.

So, guesswork. First, a simple malt bill – pale malt and some light crystal malt, aiming for 4.5% ABV. Something that would be fine if it was quite bitter but would be equally OK if it wasn’t all that bitter. I also hedged my bets on the hops – half the used hops for the full boil, the other half at 15 minutes and some new Mosaic at flame out. Fermented with S-05. And probably dry hopped with more Mosaic.

Transferring to the fermenter, it tasted like it’ll be easy-drinking bitter: nothing that would take the enamel from your teeth. Initial thought is that next time I’ll put all the used hops in for the full boil. And I’ll plan ahead – finish brewing at midnight is no fun. As ever, we’ll see when the yeast has done its work. It may well just be something I have to drink myself but an interesting experiment.

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