10-11 IAN Iced Hops
We have freeze dried coffee, frozen daiquiris, frozen french fries and frosty beer which is probably not going to be made of previously frozen hops.
Apparently a company named Dakota Hops out of South Dakota has taken a run at the hops producers here in Idaho. Their owner Steve Polley got a specialty crop grant from Idaho State Department of Agriculture to research the plausibility of freezing hops as opposed to drying them. Great idea, however Idaho Hops Commission Chairman Mike Gooding says that the technology is not feasible at this time. “They haven’t gotten it perfected yet, are you end up with is a bunch of goo. I’ve got some in my freezer right now and if you would like to come over and thaw them out and look at them you’re welcome to. It does not work right now. I don’t have the greatest of professional respect for the guys that are doing that right now. I wish them the best. The glands are where all the bitter extract are in the hops and those rupture when they are frozen. When they do that the extract oxidizes quickly and becomes useless. I am not a brewer, scientist or chemist but at this point I would say they are not having very good luck with it. I get my information from my daughter who is a home brewer. There is nothing firsthand on my part that I have observed.”
