Navigating the different advanced hop product offerings and choosing the right product for your needs.

With so many advanced hop products available today, choosing the right one for your needs can feel daunting. As the industry continues to evolve with innovations, modern brewers now have more options and tools at their disposal than ever before. From Cryo Hops® to flowable oils and new techniques – how do you decide which product to use, and when? The answer, of course, depends on your brewing goals. Are you focused on boosting your efficiency and maximizing final beer yield? Are you looking for bold flavor statements to make your beers stand out in a competition? Is simplifying your process becoming a higher priority? Let’s explore how different hop products can fit into your recipe while considering factors like the balance between bitterness, flavor, and mouthfeel.

When it comes to adjusting recipes or incorporating new products, Justin Burdt, Director of Brewing Operations for Ghost Town Brewing in Oakland, California, emphasizes the importance of gathering insight. “I like to get as much information as I can. I talk to my rep. I reach out to my network of brewers who are probably doing and reading the same things,” he explains.

The Ghost Town team shows off their 2024 World Beer Cup Bronze for Nose Goblin Imperial IPA

HyperBoost™

HyperBoost is the newest and most flowable hop extract from Yakima Chief Hops (YCH), with the highest concentration of aroma-specific hop oils. This product was specifically designed for cold-side applications and can be easily dispersed during or post-fermentation. HyperBoost is excellent for adding “extra” to your hop profile, or for creating a hop profile in an application where you just can’t have green matter present. For example, when creating hop water or other non-alcoholic products, HyperBoost may be your cleanest and most stable option. “Reducing vegetal load reduces your micro load, so you have a better start at being food safe,” explains YCH Director of Research & Development, Pat Jensen.

For flavor impact post-fermentation, Cryo Hops are a great option, but when it comes to making an efficient statement, this is where HyperBoost shines. HyperBoost was developed to suit many use cases, but Jensen implies that “One reason to use this could be ergonomic. It’s easier to pour a 100-gram bottle into a fermenter than to scoop in 20 kilograms of pellets, and if you are dry hopping from a ladder, the HyperBoost will fit in your back pocket” he says.

At Ghost Town Brewing, HyperBoost is used to give hop-forward beer an extra layer of intensity. “For HyperBoost we just go cold side. I’ve been using it solely as an amplifier – we don’t replace anything, we just add,” says Burdt. He mentions that for efficiency purposes, it may be incorporated in their flagship IPA, Inhume, to boost yield in the future. “Inhume is dry-hopped pretty heavily. If I could use HyperBoost to get it down to 1.5 pounds per barrel, that could give us a few more barrels per batch. One batch every three weeks, that’s money back in the pocket,” he explains.

As a cold side addition, YCH recommends using HyperBoost for up to 25-50% of the hop charge and adding T-90 or Cryo pellets for the remainder of the hop charge. For whirlpool use, brewers can replace up to 100% of pellets with HyperBoost (although DynaBoost, listed below, was specifically designed to increase whirlpool efficiency). Your brewery might choose to use more or less depending on beer style or overall goal.

Key benefits:

  • High concentrations of survivable compounds.
  • Easy to store, transport, and pour 100g and 1kg bottles.
  • Designed for cold side use to reduce plant matter and increase beer yield.
  • Will remain fluid even at freezing temperatures and will remain stable in a sealed canister for up to two years.
  • Current availability includes Citra®, Simcoe®, Mosaic®, and more.

Due to its high oil content, HyperBoost must be sealed, stored, and shipped according to local and government regulations. Explore these additional resources and start envisioning how you can elevate your hop charge with HyperBoost!

DynaBoost™

DynaBoost is a recent graduate of YCH’s esteemed trial program. It serves as an excellent option for replacing heavy hot side, specifically whirlpool, hop additions. Like HyperBoost, DynaBoost is created using an innovative supercritical CO2 extraction technique and is made from single-hop varieties to deliver variety-specific aromas to finished beer. While HyperBoost features a higher oil concentration (40-70% oil depending on variety), DynaBoost has been standardized to 20% oil content across all varieties.

“DynaBoost goes in all of our doubles. I want that extra punch, that extra sappiness,” says Burdt of Ghost Town’s adoption of DynaBoost. “It’s not a replacement, it’s for flavor and mouthfeel. It makes things larger, makes things bigger. It’s that boost of oil. It’s clean and provides a tad more perceived body than pure resin.”

DynaBoost serves as a versatile companion in the brewhouse, embellishing brews with a rich, dynamic hop character, delivering varietal hop characteristics to your brew through a high concentration of beer-soluble compounds. Some brewers find that it also adds an extra level of nuance to the overall quality and mouthfeel of their beer.

DynaBoost is pourable at room temperature and an ideal replacement for higher viscosity extracts which require special preparations to pour. Smaller breweries who may not use the entire container in a single application will find convenience in simply measuring out what they need and refrigerating the rest, with no need to take the product back and forth in temperature with hot water baths.

How can you navigate the different applications of HyperBoost and DynaBoost? “Both products are made to help brewers with efficiency and overall yield,” explains Jensen. “Above all else, these products provide a true-to-type varietal experience that taste just as good as pellets in their application,” he adds.

Key benefits:

  • Standardized at 20% oil content regardless of variety or crop year.
  • Easy-to-pour graduated bottles for easy storage, use, and reuse.
  • Reduces wort-sucking trub when used as a pellet alternative in the whirlpool.
  • Reduces shipping costs and cooler space compared to boxes of pellets.
  • Current availability includes Simcoe®, Citra®, Mosaic®, Sabro®, and Centennial.

DynaBoost is standing by and ready to be your whirlpool workhorse! Explore these resources for more information and inspiration to get started with DynaBoost:

Cryo Hops®

For the brewer who is looking for an increase in efficiency while boosting aroma and retaining that ‘green hop’ bite. “Cryo® is still my favorite product. Every time I open a bag, it just makes my mouth water. Cryo pellets are the best, nothing compares” Burdt explains his affinity for YCH’s pressed lupulin pellets.

Cryo pellets are created using concentrated lupulin extracted from whole-leaf hops through YCH’s proprietary, patented cryogenic separation process. This U.S.-patented method represents a groundbreaking advancement in hop production, and the process and is exclusive to YCH. The technique promotes careful preservation of the resins and aromatic oils before pressing into pellets. With higher concentrations of oil than traditional T90 pellets, Cryo Hops deliver amplified flavors and aromatics, while reducing the plant matter and maintaining that green hop character brewers love. The result? Enhanced efficiency, bold aroma, and bigger flavor profiles, offering brewers an enticing alternative to T90 pellets. As Jensen puts it, “Cryo hasn’t changed; the world has.”

When integrating Cryo Hops into your recipes, YCH suggests bringing in Cryo at 40-50% of the standard T90 weight. The exact percentage can vary, but this is a great starting point. Cryo Hops beers showcase pronounced zest with reduced grassy and vegetative characteristics. Some brewers prefer to keep the hop bill a mix of Cryo and T90 to represent a whole mix of hop flavors, accentuating the resinous and juicy attributes that shine through with Cryo. By utilizing the full spectrum of hop offerings, T90, Cryo, HyperBoost, and DynaBoost, brewers can illustrate a more dynamic portrait of their desired hop profile.

Key benefits:

  • Cryo Hops contain higher concentrations of oils and alpha acids than any other concentrated lupulin pellets.
  • Cryo pellets are gently milled and only take one trip through a mechanical sieve to separate the delicate lupulin from the bract utilizing the coldest process in the market.
  • Receiving a U.S. Patent means that our process is a significant and measurable improvement from any other hop production process and is exclusive to YCH.
  • Prior crop year Cryo pellets are guaranteed fresh and punchy for three years from the packaging date (potentially longer).
  • Research shows that using Cryo Hops can mitigate the effects of Hop Creep: Cryo Curbs Hop Creep

Integrating Cryo Hops could be a game-changing tool for your brewery. Curious how to get started with Cryo? Check out this handy calculator:

So which products are right for you?

With DynaBoost tailored for the whirlpool, HyperBoost crafted as a potent dry hop addition, and Cryo Hops ready for service at any stage of the brewing process, it is up to you to decide which hop attributes you wish to highlight and when.  “Have confidence in your brewing system and do your homework,” says Burdt. “For us, we’re tapping into a network we trust. Pick up the phone and call someone you trust. We are all open books, and we want to open doors so that we can all continue to improve.”

There are many ways to innovate your process, and we’re here to support you in achieving your brewing goals. If you need help getting started with any of these products or have questions about utilization, storage, or specs please reach out to us. Contact your regional sales rep, or contact us at brewinghelp@yakimachief.com