Lemon Hops Sorbet

So, I decided to experiment. Here's what I came up with:

Lemon Hops Sorbet

1 oz Citra hops

3 liters water

150 grams Fabbri Lemon L powder

950 grams sugar

50 grams dextrose

I started by boiling 1 oz of citra hops in the 3 liters of water for 4 minutes (using a grain sock as a filter). 

I refrigerated the hoppy water overnight then added my dry ingredients to it (Lemon L, sugar, dextrose) the next day. I used an immersion blender to get it mixed well and refrigerated the liquid mix over night. This was out of necessity, since our batch freezer was not hooked up yet, but I think it gave the ingredients time to bind and worked out well.

I used a hot process method where I ran the liquid mix through our Frigomat heater/mixer until it reached 65 degrees (in restrospect I may do this differently next time, but more on that later).

Then I ran the mix through our Taylor C118 batch freezer until I got the right consistency. It was my first time using this batch freezer, so it was kind of a guessing game.

The conclusion to my experiment is that I love this flavor profile, but the process needs tweaked. In the end, there was a slightly (too) bitter aftertaste (because hops is after all, naturally bitter). I can't decide if it was the variety of hops or the process. The second heating may have over-extracted the hops, or it may just be characteristic of the citra. I will give both a new variety of hops and a new method a try later and let you know how it goes.

In the mean time, here's a photo of the rest of my 4th of July themed case.