Yakima Chief Hops is pleased to announce that YCH 702, a standout performer from the trial program, has officially transitioned into full production. Introducing… DynaBoost™ – a groundbreaking addition to our innovative lineup of hop products!
DynaBoost serves as a versatile companion in the brewhouse, embellishing your brews with a rich and dynamic hop character. This standardized oil extract provides the modern brewer with more than just alpha acids, it provides variety-specific aromas and a seamless solution for enhancing your hop profile!
DynaBoost delivers varietal hop characteristics to your brew through a high concentration of beer-soluble compounds. Some brewers find that it also adds an extra layer of nuance to the overall quality of their beer.
While other “flowable” products have been available to brewers in recent years, there have been mixed reviews on ease of use and actual flowability. DynaBoost, a smooth whirlpool extract with exceptional pourability, was specifically designed to step out of the cooler and into the vessel – no hot water bath required.
The compact packaging saves on overall shipping costs, takes up less precious space in your cold room, and the soluble extract means less wort-sucking trub.
While many brewers have reported up to a 5% increase in wort yield, nearly all have reported that it is convenient and easy to pour. It can be incorporated into the recipe to enhance an existing hop bill or used as a substitute for hot side hop additions. Just 1 kg of DynaBoost can replace 10 kg of T-90 pellets, making this hop product an efficient commodity!
Alpha acids present in the extract will provide bitterness, but DynaBoost’s strength is in its high concentration of beer-soluble aroma compounds. “Unlike pellets which are typically 1 to 2% oil content depending on crop year, DynaBoost will always have the same oil content every year, not dependent on lot number or crop year,” says Pat Jensen, Director of Research and Development at Yakima Chief Hops. “Standardized at 20% essential oil content, we have a product that is extremely flowable at room temperature and can still flow at refrigerated temperatures.”
Owner and Brewer of Russian River Brewing Company, Vinnie Cilurzo, has been incorporating DynaBoost into both new and longstanding recipes. “You can just pull it out of the fridge and let it warm up with room temperature, there’s no need for hot water.” He points out that smaller breweries who may not be using the entire container in a single application will find convenience in simply measuring out what they need and refrigerating the rest. “In our pilot brewery, the last thing I want to do is keep taking a product back and forth in temperature by dunking a container in hot water and putting it back in the cooler.”
Russian River and PintHouse recently joined forces for a collaboration brew, Coastal Cool. The beer received a hearty dose of Simcoe® DynaBoost. “There is a mid-palate pop that you just can’t get without this product. It’s unique. We plan on expanding it into some of our cores to help fill that palate out,” says Joe Mohrfeld, Co-Founder and V.P. of Brewery Operations at PintHouse in Austin, Texas. “It kind of lays the canvas for the beer’s hop profile.”
Coastal Cool features Simcoe in nearly every available format, using the different products to isolate different aspects of the hop. He adds that “Using DynaBoost almost makes adding whole cone more appealing. You can now decide how much of that polyphenol load you want and then use the DynaBoost to drive the character. If you understand the elements it contributes, you can be a lot more specific with your intention.”
Cilurzo agrees. “You can’t use just DynaBoost, it lacks the fullness of the hop. For most of our beers, we already know we need to keep some T-90 additions in the dry hop, we want the green matter it adds to the mouthfeel.”
North Park Brewing in San Diego inspired Cilurzo’s enthusiastic adoption of DynaBoost and subsequent retooling of recipes. Kelsey McNair, the Founder and Head Brewer of North Park, continues pushing the boundaries of what is possible in terms of hop saturation. McNair had long been playing with creative ways to incorporate hop extract and was an early adopter of more fluid products.
Collaboration has been key in finding the best utilization method at North Park. “We started the method based on a collab with a little brewery called The Courtyard based in New Orleans. He was doing things with varietal specific CO2 extracts and using them as a whirlpool addition.” They had excellent results from those beers but wanted to alter their approach to utilization to ensure that the full impact was experienced downstream.
Through the process of elimination, they tried multiple methods, with varying levels of success and frustration. Inspiration struck again during a collaboration with Cellarmaker. “I was talking to Tim [Sciascia] and working through the processes, and Tim was like ‘Why don’t we just open the manway on the fermenter, put some wort in there, and pour it on top of that.’” The method was effective and provided the results they were after. This has been affectionately dubbed ‘The Kelsey Method.’ McNair says of the nickname, “I’m sure I wasn’t the first person to try this. It’s funny how collabs work, at some point in the spectrum of collaboration, people forget where they learned something. It’s like a game of telephone.”
A thoughtful brewer incorporates not only new ingredients and products but also innovative methods of application. “That tends to be what we do in our pilot brewery. Not just develop recipes but develop specific processes or concepts” says Cilurzo. He notes that in today’s beer market, passing increased costs on to the consumer is losing viability. With beer prices already at a premium, brewers must find ways to do more with less. “2024 is the year of efficiency for us. We are looking for places where we can save a little bit here and a little bit there. Certainly, with this product, we see a cost advantage by reducing hop creep, and reducing shipping costs.”
Regarding hop sensory and flavor impact, Kelsey McNair gets to the heart of it. “There’s something about this product in its long-term sensory stability that is intriguing,” he says of DynaBoost. “I’m a more is more is more kind of person when it comes to hops. With this product, I’ve found strategic advantages from a sensory perspective. We can use this in addition to what we are already doing to make beers that are mind-blowingly expressive. I really love the results.”
Boost your brewing to new heights with DynaBoost! Current availability includes Simcoe®, Citra®, Mosaic®, Sabro®, Centennial, and more. Due to the variety-specific nature of the product, alpha acids will vary by variety. This remarkable flowable extract is packaged in easy-to-pour, graduated recyclable HDPE bottles in 1 kg and 10 kg volumes, and ready to ship.
We are happy to help with any questions you may have on utilization, storage, or product specifications. Contact your regional sales rep, or contact us at [email protected]
