The Hopinator

We've got some new kit, and the brewers are pretty pleased about it!  

I's called a SSV "Hopinator"  also known as  the Hop Rocket.  

Here's what Head Brewer Ed had to say...  

The  Hop Rocket  is for improving our process of dry hopping or beers. Dry hopping is where hops are added late in the process of fermentation, either to the cask of fermenter. By adding hops at this  stage, you can extract huge amounts of aroma. We use this process in beers like 24 Carat and Winter Royal where we want that really  pronounced and assertive  hoppiness.  

Our old method for dry hopping involved climbing on to the top of the fermenters and pouring the hops into the tank. This method was ok but we only had a limited window of when we could do it in a fermentation (far too often on Sunday morning), it wasn't a very efficient method of extracting the aroma, and resulted in high losses of beer.  

Our new  Hopinator allows us to infuse the oils from the hops outside of the fermenter. This process is more controllable, much more efficient and results in higher extraction of the aroma from the hops, by up to 160%!  

Most importantly it means much lower losses, which means more end product which means more beer in your glass!"  

We've already used it in a brew of 24 Carat and we'll let you know when that batch is bottled. We're really keen to experience the results.  

Hooray for the  Hopinator!