Dakota Hops Working On Methods to Flash Freeze Hops
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MyBeer Buzz
Here’s a new way to bring fresher & higher-alpha hops to breweries in the future….flash freezing. This from The Republic:
IOUX FALLS, S.D. — A Spearfish entrepreneur is developing a method to flash freeze fresh hops instead of the traditional drying of the beer ingredient before freezing the buds.
Steve Polley, of Dakota Hops, said early tests of the method are showing higher alpha and beta acids than with first drying the hops. The acids are key measures to determine the hops’ potency.
"It makes beer with more flavor and more aroma," Polley said. "You’re freezing all the acids and all the oils."
Polley, who since 2008 has been working off of four USDA-state agriculture research grants totaling about, has been experimenting with the method using hops collected from small research plots in Rapid City and the Newell-Nisland area. He had been growing them and giving them fresh to local brewers to tinker with and was wondering if he could capture that freshness but give them some shelf life.
Polley picks the hops buds fresh and grinds them in a meat grinder before freezing them into 2-ounce "hockey pucks" or 4-ounce to 8-ounce bricks.
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